Ben Wallace: Invite Britain to peace talks or Zelensky will be bullied

Yahoo

3 days ago

Britain must be invited to peace talks to stop Volodymyr Zelensky from being bullied by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Sir Ben Wallace has said.
The former defence secretary said the Ukrainian president is a 'brave man' but would need support to push back against Mr Trump and the Russian president who are 'known to be bullies'.
Mr Trump will reportedly hold talks with Putin as soon as next week, followed by trilateral talks with Mr Zelensky. European nations are not going to be included in the discussions.
Sir Ben said a 'European power' should be 'in the room' to ensure Ukraine is not forced to accept an unsatisfactory deal.
Asked if he believed there was a possibility that Ukraine could be 'strong-armed' by Mr Trump into agreeing to something it does not actually want to do, Sir Ben told Times Radio: 'Yes, there is a concern and I think that is why, there are two other nuclear powers in Nato, France and Britain, and I think it is important that in the room should be a European power.
'Because both Trump and Putin are known to be bullies, they bully people all the time, and I don't think two bullies versus Zelensky, who is a brave man, but I don't think would necessarily produce the right outcomes.
'If this is going to be a peace process, those people who have skin in the game, and that is Europeans as well as Ukraine and indeed the United States, should be part of that peace making process.'
The announcement of talks has raised hopes that an end to the conflict could be in sight after more than three years of intense fighting.
After speaking to the US president on the phone, Mr Zelensky said he believed Russia was 'now more inclined to a ceasefire'.
Meanwhile, Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign affairs adviser, said a summit could possibly take place next week at a venue that has been decided 'in principle'.
He brushed aside the possibility of Mr Zelensky joining the summit, however.
It came after Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump's special envoy, met with the Russian president in Moscow for three hours.
At the same time, Mr Trump intensified his pressure on Putin with fresh sanctions, declaring Russia to be an 'extraordinary threat' to the United States.
Mr Trump hit India with a further 25 per cent trade tariff over its purchase of Russian oil, a vital source of income for the Kremlin.
It was not clear how the announcement of the meeting would affect Mr Trump's Friday deadline for Russia to stop the killing or face its own economic sanctions.
The meeting would be the first US-Russia summit since 2021, when Joe Biden, the former US president, met Putin in Geneva.
It would be a significant milestone toward Mr Trump's effort to end the war, although there is no guarantee it would stop the fighting as Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace.
The war has killed tens of thousands of troops on both sides as well as more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Western officials have repeatedly accused Putin of stalling for time in peace negotiations to allow Russian forces time to capture more Ukrainian land.
Putin previously offered no concessions, claiming he would only accept a settlement on his terms, which Ukraine has said would be tantamount to surrender.
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