Downing Street confirmed the Prime Minister Keir Starmer will travel to the White House to join crucial talks over the war in Ukraine alongside a raft of European leaders
Starmer to speak with coalition of the willing ahead of Zelensky-Trump meeting
Keir Starmer will travel to the White House tomorrow with Ukraine’s wartime leader Volodymyr Zelensky for crunch talks with Donald Trump.
No10 confirmed the plans as Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said she will attend the meetings. In a rare show of unity in Washington DC, they are also expected to be joined by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish president Alexander Stubb, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
It follows Vladimir Putin and Mr Trump’s summit in Alaska where no deal was reached on a ceasefire in the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. The red-carpet was rolled out for the Russian tyrant at a US military airbase where he is said to have demanded Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas – made of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
European leaders will be hoping to swerve a repeat of the explosive public row during Zelensky’s last visit to the Oval Office. At the time Mr Trump warned Ukraine’s leader, who left the White House earlier than planned, he was “gambling with World War Three”.
Downing Street said on Sunday the Prime Minister will with other European allies “reaffirm his backing for Ukraine will continue for as long as it takes”.
It comes as Mr Starmer prepares to hold talks today with leaders of the Coalition of the Willing, including French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor. The coalition, made up of 30-plus nations, is prepared to deter Russian aggression by putting troops on the ground in Ukraine once a peace deal is reached.
On Sunday, Zelensky said Russia was complicating efforts to get a ceasefire in Ukraine in a post on X. He said: “We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation.”
He added: “If they lack the will to carry out a simple order to stop the strikes, it may take a lot of effort to get Russia to have the will to implement far greater – peaceful coexistence with its neighbours for decades. But together we are working for peace and security. Stopping the killing is a key element of stopping the war.”
Posting on his Truth Social platform on Saturday evening, the US President said: “If all work out [on Monday], we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin, millions of people’s lives will be saved.”
The US president is said to be mulling over Russia’s demands to bring an end to the war, which include a land grab of two occupied Ukrainian regions: Donetsk and Luhansk.