UK premier Keir Starmer will prod fellow leaders Saturday to sign up to a coalition willing to protect any eventual ceasefire in Ukraine, having said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not serious about peace”.
The British prime minister is expected to tell some 25 fellow leaders during a virtual summit that “now is the time for concrete commitments”, as Putin mulls a US proposal of a 30-day pause to the conflict.“We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal,” Starmer said in comments released by Downing Street late Friday, ahead of the call on Saturday morning.“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace.
“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,” he added.Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have been leading efforts to assemble a so-called “coalition of the willing” ever since Trump opened direct negotiations with Moscow last month.They say the group is necessary — along with US support — to provide Ukraine with security guarantees by deterring Putin from violating any ceasefire.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday also confirmed the call and said he had discussed “technical aspects” of how the ceasefire could be implemented with Macron.“Our teams continue to work on clear security guarantees, and they will be ready soon,” Zelensky said on social media platform X.Starmer and Macron, who spoke on the phone on the eve of the virtual gathering, have said they are willing to put British and French troops on the ground in Ukraine but it is not clear if other countries are keen on doing the same.
Starmer wrote in an op-ed for the Ukrainian information website European Pravda that any agreement “must not expose Ukraine to further attack and that therefore peace must be backed by strength”.
Sourcing for verified news is not cheap. We do everything possible to supply quality news and information to all our valuable readers day in, day out and we are committed to keep doing this.
Your kind donation will help our continuous research efforts.
