Lammy to join Trump team for talks on Ukraine peace plan

Telegraph

16-04-2025

David Lammy will join Donald Trump 's peace envoys for talks on ending the war in Ukraine in Paris on Thursday.
The Foreign Secretary will travel to the French capital for meetings with Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, sources told The Telegraph.
It will mark the first high-level discussions between the Anglo-French-led coalition of the willing and the White House's leadership since Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, France's president, made separate trips to Washington in February.
Sir Keir will not be joining the talks in Paris, a No 10 source said.
The Prime Minister and Mr Macron have assembled about 30 countries that are planning to deploy troops to Ukraine to uphold any peace agreement brokered by Mr Trump.
However, talks have stalled in recent weeks as the US president struggles to convince Vladimir Putin to sign up to his proposed ceasefire.
European leaders have urged the US to take a tougher approach to pressure the Russian president to the negotiating table.
Mr Trump had recently claimed he would increase sanctions on Russia's energy exports if his opposite number in Moscow failed to agree to the ceasefire, but is yet to follow through with those threats.
The meetings in Paris will be an opportunity for Mr Witkoff to debrief the Europeans on his recent talks with Putin in St Petersburg.
A US State Department spokesman said that Mr Rubio would join the talks with 'European counterparts to advance President Trump's goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed'.
The spokesman added: 'While in Paris, he will also discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region.'
Russia has so far used its talks with Washington in an attempt to secure relief from Western sanctions imposed over Putin's invasion.
Moscow has claimed that it would only sign up to a partial truce in the Black Sea if punitive measures were removed from one of its banks dealing with agricultural transactions.
It has also pushed for funds frozen in the US to be used to purchase Boeing jets, Bloomberg reported.
Last week, The Telegraph reported that a European-led force could be deployed to Ukraine for five years, as the coalition of the willing attempts to rebuild Kyiv's war-stricken military.
The boots on the ground would initially aim to provide a breather to Ukrainian troops and deter Russia from breaching any ceasefire agreement.
The European presence would then be gradually withdrawn as the Ukrainian armed forces became capable enough to defend itself moving forward.
The strategy was devised by British and French military chiefs, who have also travelled to Kyiv to discuss the plans.