Starmer accused of hiding behind ‘cringey cliches' over Ukraine peacekeepers

Telegraph

24-03-2025

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by military experts of hiding behind 'cringey' cliches over his plans for a peacekeeping coalition in Ukraine.
John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Moscow and Kyiv, told The Telegraph there were concerns that the Prime Minister's initiative was proving hollow and had no clear objectives.
It came as US and Russian officials on Monday began talks in Riyadh to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Despite 30 nations meeting last week at Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood for talks led by Lt Gen Nick Perry, the commander of joint operations, the Government was unable to set out what concrete plans had been made regarding the number of troops and equipment each country could send to Ukraine.
Speaking after the meeting, Sir Keir said the coalition, which was launched on March 2, had moved from 'political momentum' to 'military planning'.
However, Mr Foreman said: 'If the Government won't level with the people, especially things on national security, they will rightly ask what is going on?
'We are a mature democracy with centuries of parliamentary procedures and a free media. The Government needs to treat us like adults, not hide behind cringey, gnomic cliches.'
He said Sir Keir's words amounted to a 'tentative first step', adding: 'They are still in the very early part of the planning process, with weak strategic objectives.
'People both in the military, and also those involved intimately in the military planning process, feel sorry for General Nick Perry who has been landed with the baby due to unrealistic political assumptions.'
PM 'owes us an explanation'
It comes after The Telegraph revealed that senior military figures had dismissed Sir Keir's coalition as 'political theatre' with 'no defined military end-state or military-strategic planning assumptions'.
One said Sir Keir had 'got ahead of himself' when he pledged to put boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal.
Mr Foreman said: 'It's all well and good to say 'boots on the ground and planes in the air' but Starmer owes us all – parliament, service personnel, their families, and the public – a much greater and clearer explanation of what's going on and what he wants to achieve rather than hiding behind cliches.
'It's part of being a democracy, you don't have to spell out the military detail but you can give a broad indication of principle: what do we want the mission to do? Defend? Deter? Reassure? Each of these missions will require a different level of force, and come with different risks.'
He said other areas where the Government had failed to be transparent included the Strategic Defence Review, which is due to be published in spring but has yet to appear, and the fact that a defence equipment spending plan has not been published in over two years.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, recently dismissed Sir Keir's coalition as 'a posture and a pose' and accused the 30-nation cohort of being 'simplistic'.
The White House has pledged to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine by April 20, when Easter Sunday falls in both Western and Orthodox churches.
However, a senior Army source told The Telegraph that any plan the coalition comes up with would only be 'viable' with the guarantee of a US backstop.
'Without that, [Vladimir] Putin will just rule it out as a red line and other European nations will not commit,' he said.
The Government has been contacted for comment.