However, the prime minister faces a major diplomatic effort to get the US on board after Trump told his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he had no plans to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, adding: “We’re going to have Europe do that.”.
Keir Starmer has warned that Vladimir Putin could invade Ukraine again unless the US provides security guarantees as he arrived for critical talks with Donald Trump at the most precarious moment for European stability in decades.
Ahead of his own visit to Washington, President Zelenskyy confirmed that a deal to share some of Ukraine’s mineral wealth with the US had been agreed, although he added the initial agreement was more of a framework and that he also still needed American security guarantees.
Yet Starmer is going into the talks with a clear message that Putin is the aggressor, after the US president falsely claimed Ukraine had started the war.
With the future of Ukrainian security hanging in the balance, he urged the president to commit a US backstop to a British and French-led peacekeeping force, saying it was the only way to avoid Russia plunging Europe back into war.
