Sir Keir Starmer is set to make an announcement in a national address following a Ukraine peace meeting with world leaders in Downing Street.
This morning, a collection of 25 world leaders – who could potentially make up Starmer’s European peacekeeping force – discussed the PM’s plan on the “coalition of the willing” during a virtual summit.
Ahead of the meeting, No10 announced that the PM would use the meeting to declare that it was time for “concrete commitments”, and would urge European allies to increase military backing to Ukraine.
He was expected to use the meeting to tell leaders that Vladimir Putin must face increased financial pressure and allies must prepare themselves to back a peace deal in the future.
Downing Street has announced that the PM will use the call to declare that it is time for “concrete commitments” by European allies
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The announcement follows a summit of defence ministers and military bosses in Paris earlier this week, where they outlined individual nation’s efforts to boost military backing for Ukraine.
So far, Downing Street has confirmed that several European countries, Nato, Canada, Ukraine, the EU Commission, Australia and New Zealand will join the online meeting.
In a statement before the call, Starmer said: “We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal.
“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace.
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“If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious and enduring peace.
“If they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war.”
Subsequently, he accused the Kremlin of “trying to delay” by “saying there must be a painstaking study before a ceasefire can take place”.
“The world needs to see action, not a study or empty words and pointless conditions,” he said.
Putin said that he believes “lots of questions” have remained and that a ceasefire must lead the way to “long-term peace” and tackle “the initial reasons for the crisis”
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“My message to the Kremlin could not be clearer: stop the barbaric attacks on Ukraine, once and for all, and agree to a ceasefire now. Until then, we will keep working around the clock to deliver peace.”
Starmer sparked significant controversy when he announced that the UK could soon be sending off troops to keep the peace along the Ukraine-Russia border if a ceasefire deal was able to be reached – as long as the US offered a security “backstop”.
On Tuesday, Ukraine said that it would back the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire as Volodymyr Zelensky described the negotiations that day as “positive”.
However, despite pressure from both sides of the Atlantic, Putin said that he believes “lots of questions” have remained and that a ceasefire must lead the way to “long-term peace” and tackle “the initial reasons for the crisis”.