The U.K. is “ready and willing” to put British peace-keeping troops on the ground in Ukraine, its Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
In an opinion piece for the Telegraph newspaper published Sunday night, Starmer said “securing a lasting peace in Ukraine that safeguards its sovereignty for the long term is essential” to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from “further aggression.”
The commitment, made ahead of a meeting with European leaders in Paris convened by French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, marks the first time Starmer has explicitly indicated the U.K. is ready to put British troops in harm’s way in Ukraine.
“We must be clear that peace cannot come at any cost,” Starmer said. “Ukraine must be at the table in these negotiations, because anything less would accept Putin’s position that Ukraine is not a real nation.”
He added: “The end of this war, when it comes, cannot merely become a temporary pause before Putin attacks again.”
The pointed comments came after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Putin earlier this month and said the U.S. would “immediately” begin negotiating with the Kremlin to stop the war. He also ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine, said American troops would not be sent to secure any peace deal and rejected Kyiv’s goal of retaking all the land Russia has seized since 2014.
The Trump administration has since sent mixed messages about Ukraine’s role in the peace talks. Over the weekend, POLITICO reported that senior Trump administration officials were heading to Saudi Arabia to begin negotiations with Russians and Ukrainians — surprising Kyiv.
In his op-ed, Starmer wrote: “While European nations must step up in this moment — and we will — U.S. support will remain critical and a U.S. security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the U.S. can deter Putin from attacking again. So I will be meeting President Trump in the coming days and working with him and all our G7 partners to help secure the strong deal we need.”
In a nod to Trump’s demands that European countries spend more on defense, Starmer said he would be telling his colleagues at their emergency meeting on Monday that “we have got to show we are truly serious about our own defence and bearing our own burden. We have talked about it for too long — and President Trump is right to demand that we get on with it.”
Separately, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday took aim at the Trump administration’s unilateral announcements about Ukraine peace talks, saying European countries would not be providing security guarantees “that we have not developed and accepted ourselves.”
Speaking during a televised debate ahead of Germany’s Feb. 23 election, Scholz echoed Starmer’s comments about the need to ensure Ukraine is involved in any negotiations with Russia.
“Ukraine must be a democratic, sovereign nation over whose heads no decisions are made,” Scholz said. “As Europeans, we will not allow that to happen. That’s why I’m going to Paris tomorrow and talking to many friends where we meet to agree on exactly that. And we will also not allow anyone to agree that Ukraine should be demilitarized. Conversely, it needs a very strong army so that it is not invaded again if a peace agreement is reached.”
Chris Lunday contributed to this report.
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