Keir Starmer is heading to Washington with a host of EU leaders to support Volodymyr Zelensky’s crunch talks with Donald Trump – as the US president appeared to take a hostile tone with his Ukrainian counterpart .
Moments after a private conversation between the Ukrainian and US presidents in the White House has concluded, the Prime Minister will attend a second meeting along with France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Alexander Stubb, president of Finland in a bid to protect Kyiv from having to submit to Russian land grabs as a price for peace.
NATO chief Mark Rutte and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are also attending. Zelensky is expecting to face calls from the US president to concede control of Donetsk and Luhansk, two areas currently occupied by Vladimir Putin’s troops.
Yesterday, Trump reposted a message Sunday by a user on his Truth Social platform which said: “Ukraine must be willing to lose some territory to Russia, otherwise the longer the war goes on they will keep losing even more land!!”
Bad memories of last time Zelensky visited White House
While the relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenksy has improved in the months since, Ukraine’s leader will not need reminding what happened last time he met with his US counterpart in the Oval Office.
In February, a talk in front of the cameras descended into what onlookers described as a ‘shouting match’, with the US President and JD Vance berating Zelensky for being “disrespectful” to the United States.
At one stage in the unprecedented on-screen argument, Trump told Zelensky he was “gambling with millions of lives” and risking “World War III”.
Getty Images)
US expects Ukraine to ‘make concessions’ to Russia
Yesterday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said both Russia and Ukraine need to “make concessions” to reach a peace agreement.
He told Fox News: “You can’t have a peace deal between two warring factions unless both sides agree to give up something.
“Otherwise, if one side gets everything they want, that’s not a peace deal. It’s called surrender.”
What time will Starmer, Zelensky and Trump meet?
The Prime Minister and other European leaders are expected to be at the White House by 12pm local time (5pm BST), with Zelensky and Trump set to greet each other an hour later.
The US and Ukrainian presidents will then go into a private meeting, likely joined by Vice President JD Vance, before a meeting involving all leaders at 3pm (8pm).
Trump is likely to push a peace deal without a ceasefire following his talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska last Friday, which he described as “very productive”.
We’ll be bringing you all the build-up throughout the day on this live blog.