Keir Starmer heads to Paris for Ukraine crisis talks after Trump interventions

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Sir Keir Starmer has met French President Emmanuel Macron outside the Elysée Palace ahead of crisis talks in Paris focused on the security of Europe. But online, people have reacted by questioning how much time the prime minister spends abroad. It won’t be long until he jets off again either, with Downing Street announcing Sir Keir will meet Donald Trump for the first time since his second inauguration next week.

The PM will travel over to Washington DC for talks amid controversy over the president’s plan for peace in Ukraine. That issue will be top of the agenda during the emergency meeting over the security of the continent in Paris this afternoon. European leaders, including Sir Keir, are gathering at the Elysée Palace as they scramble to respond to Trump’s dramatic intervention in the war. But several users of X were less than impressed with the PM’s decision to attend, with one asking: ‘Is he ever in Britain?’.

The US government has explicitly ruled out involving Europe in peace talks – sparking concerns that even Ukraine itself may be left out in the cold. Instead, Trump invited Russia to talks in Saudi Arabia with the aim of bringing the conflict to an end. Speaking to reporters in Bristol before his journey over the Channel, Sir Keir said: ‘We’re facing a generational challenge when it comes to national security.

‘Obviously, the immediate question is the future of Ukraine, and we must continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position whatever happens next, and to make sure that if there is peace, and we all want peace, that it is lasting.’. Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and aide Yuri Ushakov will meet their US counterparts in the Middle East tomorrow, the Kremlin announced this morning.

There is confusion over whether Kyiv will be involved in that meeting, with a ‘senior Ukrainian government source’ telling BBC News no invitation has been sent while Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy to Ukraine, said otherwise. Last week, before any negotiations had begun, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth declared a return to Ukraine’s borders before Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea is ‘an unrealistic objective’.

He also insisted ‘any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops’ – though not from the US. Sir Keir responded last night by announcing he would be willing to put British troops on the ground in eastern Europe. This move was dismissed as ‘staggering hypocrisy’ by Keir Giles, a Russia expert at foreign policy think tank Chatham House, due to the government’s hesitation to place a timeline on increasing defence spending.

He told Metro: ‘Talking about the heavy responsibility of putting troops in harm’s way when he has decided that UK troops should not be funded to be fully equipped. It’s strange. ‘We’ll see today whether Starmer will actually follow through on what he is promising, or whether once again we will have betrayed promises, weasel words, and shifting the blame.’. A YouGov poll last month found 58% of Brits said they would back UK soldiers being stationed in Ukraine as peacekeepers as part of a deal to end the conflict.

Former head of the British Army Lord Richard Dannatt said he thought the PM was ‘doing the right thing’ – before adding that ‘doing the right thing comes at a price’. He told BBC Breakfast: ‘Frankly, we haven’t got the numbers and we haven’t got the equipment to put a large force onto the ground for an extended period of time at the present moment. ‘Now, if Keir Starmer wants to do that, that’s fine. The British Army will always stand up to the plate, but here we go again.

‘We’ve got to have the right number of people with the right equipment and the right training, and start to fund that now.’. Asked about a commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, Sir Keir told reporters today: ‘We have to spend more on defence. That’s the reality of the situation we find ourselves in. ‘That’s why we made a commitment to 2.5%. ‘We are going through a strategic review of defence at the moment, which is looking at the challenges and the capability, and then we’ll set out that path.

‘Part of my message to our European allies is that we’ve all got to step up on both capability and on spending and funding. Now, that includes the UK, which is why I’ve made that commitment to spend more.’. Mr Giles said Europe’s leaders will be discussing an issue they have ‘ignored for so long that it’s turned into an emergency’. He added: ‘We are seeing European leaders scrambling to adjust to the reality that has been thrust in their faces after they disregarded it for years.’.