Sir Keir Starmer will join Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders for a crucial meeting with President Trump at the White House on Monday.
Downing Street confirmed the prime minister would be attending, after six key allies announced they would be travelling to Washington DC in a show of support for Ukraine.
Finish president Alexander Stubb, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and French president Emmanuel Macron are among those who will on hand to prevent any flare-ups between the Ukrainian president and Trump, and to represent Europe’s interests. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen will also be in attendance at the request of Zelensky..
It comes as Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine surrender the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of the Donbas region as one condition for ending the war.
The Russian leader told Trump that he would be prepared to stop fighting on the rest of the frontline if Ukraine gave in to the demand.
The concessions were discussed at the summit of the two leaders in Alaska on Friday, which ended with no peace deal despite nearly three hours of talks. Sources very close to the meeting told The Independent the dramatic move appears to have been endorsed by Mr Trump as a means to bring an end to the war.
‘Big progress on Russia,’ Trump says
In a message posted to his Truth Social account, President Trump said: “BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!”
He also said: “It’s incredible how the Fake News violently distorts the TRUTH when it comes to me. There is NOTHING I can say or do that would lead them to write or report honestly about me. I had a great meeting in Alaska on Biden’s stupid War, a war that should have never happened!!!”
US may not be able to create scenario to end war in Ukraine, Rubio says
The United States will keep trying to create a scenario to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but that might not be possible, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday.
“If peace is not going to be possible here and this is just going to continue on as a war, people will continue to die by the thousands. We may unfortunately wind up there, but we don’t want to wind up there,” Rubio said in an interview with ‘Face the Nation.’.
“There are things that were discussed as part of this meeting that are potentials for breakthroughs, that are potential for progress,” said Rubio, adding that topics for discussion would include security guarantees for Ukraine.
According to sources, Trump and Putin discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere.
Rubio said both sides would need to make concessions if a peace deal were to be concluded.
U.S. envoy says Putin agreed to Article 5-like protections for Ukraine as part of Trump summit
Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said that Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO’s Article 5 mandate.
“We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Putin agree to that.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that “we welcome President Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. and the ‘Coalition of the willing’ – including the European Union – is ready to do its share.”
Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday’s summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreeing to “robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing.”
He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine.
Witkoff defended Trump’s decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made.
“We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal,” Witkoff said, without elaborating. “We began to see some moderation in the way they’re thinking about getting to a final peace deal,” he said.
Zelensky says current front lines should be the start for negotiations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Brussels on Sunday, said the current front lines in his country’s war against Russia should be the basis for peace talks.
“We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now,” Zelensky said, adding that European leaders supported this.
Zelensky reiterated his position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal.
EU’s von der Leyen says content of ceasefire is more important
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Sunday the term “ceasefire” was less important than the need to stop the killing.
“It matters what’s the effect. And the effect must be to stop the killing,” von der Leyen said.
“So it’s not the term itself, it’s the content that matters. It is so important to have as soon as possible a trilateral meeting … between the President of Ukraine, the President of the United States, and of Russia.”
Is Zelensky about to walk into another White House ambush?
It is now conceivable, just, that Trump is prepared to consider security guarantees for Ukraine that reflect Nato’s Article 5, which could mean that if Ukraine signed up to a peace deal then its long-term future sovereignty and security would be protected, by force of arms, by allies including the US.
Read the full article here:
Russia’s FSB says it prevented Ukrainian drone attack on Smolensk nuclear power plant
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Sunday it had prevented a Ukrainian drone attack on the Smolensk nuclear power plant, Interfax news agency reported.
Earlier, Moscow’s forces announced they shot down 300 Ukrainian drones and struck storage sites for Sapsan missiles while fierce battles raged in the Donetsk region where Ukrainian forces were trying to halt a Russian advance, the defence ministry and war bloggers said.
“Four guided aerial bombs and 300 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by air defense systems,” the ministry said.
State department papers left behind on Alaska hotel Trump-Putin summit details
Eight pages — containing a schedule, several phone numbers of government employees, and a luncheon menu — were found in a public hotel printer at Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, a 20-minute drive from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson where the two world leaders met Friday to discuss the future of the war in Ukraine.
Read the full article here:
Swedish prime minister to attend Sunday’s ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting
Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson will virtually attend Sunday’s meeting with the “Coalition of the Willing”, ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskiys visit to Washington on Monday, a spokesperson from the prime minister’s office told Reuters.
Kristersson will however not fly to Washington together with Zelensky alongside other European leaders on Monday, the spokesperson said.
Mapped: The key territories Putin wants handed over to bring about peace in Ukraine
Despite launching an illegal invasion, Vladimir Putin is understood to have demanded that Kyiv surrender the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces as a condition for ending the war.
Read the full article here:
