Great Britain and France will work on their own peace plan for Ukraine, said Keir Starmer, while European leaders rushed to respond to the disastrous meeting of the Friday white house between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Prime Minister told the BBC on Sunday that he and the French president, Emmanuel Macronhad agreed to start the separate negotiations to those between the United States and Russia, after a series of telephone calls precipitated on Saturday evening.
Starmer told Laura Kuensberg de la BBC: “We have now agreed that the United Kingdom, with France and perhaps one or two others, will work with Ukraine On a plan to stop the fighting, then we will discuss this plan with the United States. »»
He added: “The United Kingdom and France are the most advanced in reflection on this subject, and that is why President Macron and I are going to work on this level, which we will then discuss with the United States.
“It’s a step in the right direction. It is not an exclusion – the more there is, the better. But we have to move to a faster and more agile way to move forward, and I think it is a coalition of voluntary states. »»
Starmer spent on Saturday committed in intense diplomacy After Zelenskyy’s meeting in Washington, during which the Ukrainian president was reprimanded live by the camera by Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance.
The Prime Minister welcomed Zelenskyy to Downing Street before calling Macron and Trump while he was trying to show solidarity for Ukraine while repairing the effiled ties between Washington and kyiv.
Zelenskyy will meet King Charles in Sandringham on Sunday, while Starmer will welcome European leaders, as well as those in Canada and Turkey, for a defense summit in the center of London.
Meanwhile, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will sign a loan agreement of 2.3 billion pounds sterling to allow Kyiv to buy more weapons, to be reimbursed using profits generated on Russian sovereign assets which are under sanctions.
Pirates also said It will modify the delivery of the national national heritage fund of 27.8 billion pounds sterling so that it can be spent in defense as well as infrastructure projects.
Unlike several other European leaders, Starmer has so far refused to criticize Trump for his actions on Friday, a position he defended on Sunday.
“I felt uncomfortable-nobody wants to see this,” he said. “But the important thing is how to react to this.
“There are a number of different routes that people could drop. One is to accelerate rhetoric as to how we are all indignant or not.
“The other is to do what I did, what is, wrapping my sleeves, getting the phone, talking to President Trump, talking to President Zelenskyy, then inviting President Zelenskyy for a vast meeting yesterday … And then, win the phone to President Macron and President Trump afterwards, because my reaction was, we have to make the link.”
Starmer said that the Franco-British peace plan could include “one or two others”, which he described as a “coalition of wishes”.
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He said the talks would imply discussions on the place where the border would be established between Ukraine and Russia, but he admitted that any plan would always be based on American military cooperation, which Trump has not yet agreed to provide.
“This means a line agreed in the terms of the agreement, then that this line is defended,” said Starmer. “We (him and Trump) discussed it for a long time on Thursday because you cannot have an agreement that collapses afterwards.”
Starmer said he was willing to commit British troops to defend any peace agreement in Ukraine, but that it would only be safe if they have received communications, logistics and air support from the United States.
He added that he did not trust the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to stick to the terms of any agreement. However, he said that he had trusted Zelenskyy and Trump, despite the latter’s vacillating support in Ukraine.
Kemi Badenoch, the conservative leader, said on Sunday that her “heart was released” in Zelenskyy.
She was the program Kuensberg: “I watched her and I couldn’t believe what was going on. He was humiliated. I do not think that we should lead this kind of difficult conversations in front of the cameras, and we must remember that President Zelenskyy is a hero. »»