Keir Starmer pledged to “take Russian oil and gas off the global market” as he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a bid to sustain momentum on ending the war in Ukraine after a whiplash week that saw the collapse of a potential ceasefire summit.
Starmer hosted a meeting of Ukraine’s allies that sought to build on Donald Trump’s biggest intervention yet against Vladimir Putin as he sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies.
Zelenskyy hailed the move by the Americans as “a big step” but urged allies to go further, saying, “we have to apply pressure, not only to Rosneft and Lukoil, but to all Russian oil companies.”
NATO chief Mark Rutte, who joined fresh from meeting Trump in Washington, said he hoped U.S. sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies “will starve them of revenue and significantly increase the pressure on Putin.”
They also praised EU leaders for agreeing to support Ukraine’s finances for the next two years, despite the failure of talks in Brussels to release billions of euros in frozen Russian assets to help fund the country’s defense.
Starmer, Zelenskyy and Rutte met in London alongside Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Dutch counterpart, Dick Schoof, ahead of a virtual meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing, which was also joined by Japan for the first time.
Since it was formed, the coalition’s talks have focused on ways to guarantee security in the event of a ceasefire.
This week, however, conversation was focused more sharply on how to ramp up pressure on Putin to restart peace talks in the face of intransigence from the Russian leader.
Key goals
Zelenskyy had two key aims in meeting European leaders: capitalizing on Trump’s new sanctions and keeping long-range weapons on the table.
One person familiar with Friday’s discussion pointed out Surgutneftegas, Putin’s personal company, has not been targeted yet and predicted: “If their [Russia’s] entire oil sphere could be squeezed it would have some chance of bringing Putin to the table.”
A senior U.K. official separately added that the U.S. action had been “a really important new step” and it is “always more powerful when nations act together.”
The same person close to Friday’s talks said long-range missile capabilities must feature in European and U.S. efforts.
“Everyone saw how Putin reacted to the Tomahawks prospect,” they said. “But then Americans backed down from the idea and Putin swiftly turned away from diplomacy.”
Diplomatic drama
The U.S. president has seesawed back and forth in his willingness to listen to Zelenskyy and Putin, and European onlookers were nervous about his plan to meet the Russian leader in Hungary this week.
However, that meeting was canceled after a phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov went badly.
On Wednesday, the U.S. announced sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, marking a shift in attitude from the White House.
Trump, who had previously said he would not introduce more sanctions unless European countries backed off Russian oil and gas, told reporters: “I just felt it was time.”
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