Zelensky to meet Starmer ahead of Trump-Putin summit
Mr Starmer's meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky comes after he said Britain stands ready to "increase pressure" on Russia if necessary.
Meanwhile, Mr Trump threatened Russia with "severe consequences" if a ceasefire was rejected by its leader.
During a call with the US president and European allies yesterday, Mr Starmer praised Mr Trump for his work to bring forward a "viable" chance of an end to the war.
But concerns have been raised over Mr Zelensky's exclusion from the meeting between the Mr Trump and Mr Putin, which is set to take place in Alaska.
Mr Starmer said yesterday: "This meeting on Friday that President Trump is attending is hugely important.
"As I've said personally to President Trump for the three-and-a-bit years this conflict has been going on, we haven't got anywhere near a prospect of actually a viable solution, a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire.
"And now we do have that chance, because of the work of that the president has put in."
Further sanctions could be imposed on Russia should the Kremlin fail to engage, and the UK is already working on its next package of measures targeting Moscow, he said.
"We're ready to support this, including from the plans we've already drawn up to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased," he told allies.
"It is important to remind colleagues that we do stand ready also to increase pressure on Russia, particularly the economy, with sanctions and wider measures as may be necessary."
Mr Starmer and European leaders have repeatedly said discussions about Ukraine should not happen without it, amid concerns the country is being sidelined in negotiations about its own future.
Asked if it was his decision to not invite Mr Zelensky to the meeting, Mr Trump said "no just the opposite", before adding that a second meeting with the Ukrainian president could take place afterwards.
"We had a very good call, he was on the call, President Zelensky was on the call. I would rate it a 10, you know, very, very friendly," he told reporters in Washington.
He added: "There's a very good chance that we're going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first, because the first is I'm going to find out where we are and what we're doing."
The US president has previously suggested a truce could involve some "swapping" of land.
It is believed one of the Russian leader's demands is for Ukraine to cede parts of the Donbas region which it still controls.
But Mr Zelensky has already rejected any proposal that would compromise Ukraine's territorial integrity, something that is forbidden by the country's constitution.
A joint statement from the Coalition of the Willing, which is co-chaired by Mr Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said "international borders must not be changed by force".
It added: "Sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia's war economy should be strengthened if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire in Alaska."
The Coalition of the Willing is a European-led effort to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine in the event of truce.
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Irish Independent
4 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
U-turn as Trump administration agrees to keep Washington police chief in place
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23 minutes ago
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Irish Independent
34 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Trump says Ukraine needs to make a deal after summit with Putin ends without ceasefire
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Still, Trump did not sell out Ukraine," Cold War historian Sergey Radchenko posted on X. Trump told Fox News that a meeting would now be set up between Putin and Ukraine's Zelenskiy, which he might also attend. He gave no further details on who was organizing the meeting or when it might be. Putin made no mention of meeting Zelenskiy when speaking to reporters earlier. Russian state news agency TASS quoted Putin's foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov as saying the possibility of a three-way summit including Zelenskiy had not been discussed. After Trump landed in Washington on Saturday, the White House said the president was on the phone with NATO leaders following a lengthy call with Zelenskiy. "We must continue to put pressure on Russia, and even increase it, to give the clear signal to Russia that it must pay the price (for its invasion of Ukraine)," Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters in Oslo. In another reaction from a NATO country, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said: "The Trump-Putin talks in Alaska did not bring significant progress toward ending the war in Ukraine, but they confirmed that Putin is not seeking peace, but rather an opportunity to weaken Western unity and spread his propaganda." Both Russia and Ukraine carried out overnight air attacks, a daily occurrence in the war that Russia launched in February 2022 with its full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine's territory, Ukraine's Air Force said on Saturday. It said its air defense units destroyed 61 of them. The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said 139 clashes had taken place on the front line over the past day. Russia said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight. Trump told Fox that he would hold off on imposing tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Putin. He did not mention India, another major buyer of Russian crude, which has been slapped with a total 50% tariff on U.S. imports that includes a 25% penalty for the imports from Russia. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now," Trump said of Chinese tariffs. "I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now." Trump has threatened sanctions on Moscow as well but has thus far not followed through, even after Putin ignored a Trump-imposed ceasefire deadline earlier this month. The anticlimactic end to the closely watched summit was in stark contrast to the pomp and circumstance with which it began. When Putin arrived at an Air Force base in Alaska, a red carpet awaited him, where Trump greeted the Russian president warmly as U.S. military aircraft flew overhead. Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court, accused of the war crime of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Russia denies the allegations, and the Kremlin has dismissed the ICC warrant as null and void. Russia and the United States are not members of the court. Trump ended his remarks on Friday by telling Putin, "I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon." "Next time in Moscow," a smiling Putin responded in English. Trump said he might "get a little heat on that one" but that he could "possibly see it happening." Zelenskiy said ahead of Friday's summit that the meeting should open the way for a "just peace" and three-way talks that included him, but added that Russia was continuing to wage war. "It's time to end the war, and the necessary steps must be taken by Russia. We are counting on America," Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.
