Keir Starmer to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Downing Street
The UK prime minister's meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy comes after he said Britain stood ready to 'increase pressure' on Russia if necessary.
Meanwhile, Trump threatened Russia with 'severe consequences' if a ceasefire was rejected by its leader.
During a call with the US president and European allies on Wednesday, Starmer praised Trump for his work to bring forward a 'viable' chance of an end to the war.
Concerns have been raised over Zelensky's exclusion from the meeting between Trump and Putin, which is set to take place in Alaska on Friday.
Speaking on Wednesday, Starmer said: '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.'
Starmer and European leaders have said repeatedly that discussions about Ukraine should not happen without Kyiv's involvement, amid concerns the country is being sidelined in negotiations about its own future.
Asked if it was his decision to not invite Zelenskyy to the meeting, 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 Zelenskyy 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 that it still controls. But Zelenskyy 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', a European-led effort to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine in the event of truce, which is co-chaired by Starmer, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the 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.'
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