PM to speak with allies, amid reports Trump mulling Russian land grab in Ukraine
Sir Keir Starmer will meet European allies on Sunday, amid reports Donald Trump favours a Russian land grab in Ukraine to end the war.
The Prime Minister, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the coalition of the willing on Sunday afternoon.
The video conference of allies who plan to keep the peace in Ukraine comes ahead of Volodymyr Zelensky’s White House meeting with Donald Trump on Monday.
The one-on-one in the Oval Office could pave the way for a three-way meeting alongside Russian leader Mr Putin, the US President has said.
Alaska
The Russian and American leaders met on Friday at a military base in Anchorage, Alaska, for a summit to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
Several news outlets have cited sources which claimed that during the negotiations Mr Putin demanded full control of Donetsk and Luhansk – two occupied Ukrainian regions – as a condition for ending the war.
In exchange, he would give up other Ukrainian territories held by Russian troops.
Other outlets reported that Mr Trump is inclined to support the plan, and will speak to Mr Zelensky about it on Monday when they meet in the Oval Office.
Sir Keir commended Mr Trump’s “pursuit of an end to the killing” following a phone call with the US President, Mr Zelensky and Nato allies on Saturday morning.
But he insisted Ukraine’s leader must not be excluded from future talks to broker a peace in Ukraine.
‘Security guarantee’
The Prime Minister and European leaders appeared increasingly confident that Mr Trump will offer a “security guarantee” of air support to back up allied troops on the ground in Ukraine, should they be deployed to keep the peace.
But Mr Trump also appeared to have a change of heart on what he wants to achieve from the talks, indicating that he wants a permanent peace settlement rather than a ceasefire, echoing the sentiment of Mr Putin.
The Alaska summit was “timely” and “useful”, Mr Putin said after he left.
Experts have warned the face-to-face summit has risked legitimising the Russian leader, who has been made a pariah by the international community for invading Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Mr Zelensky warned Russia may ramp up its strikes against his country in the coming days “in order to create more favourable political circumstances for talks with global actors”.
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Trumps wants a nobel prize so will sign off on anything Putin tells him. He doesnt care for lives, he will sell millions into death for a shiny object. He is that shallow.
Putin told trump his 2020 was rigged and the GOP are all over it.
EU, should we do a sticking plaster? Ukraine stopped Russia rolling over Europe, they need help. Or we get russian boots on UK soil.
The proxy war is lost. Trump will see Zelenskky, explain to him the deal, persuade him to take it, before it is made public. He has no choice but to accept it.
What’s the alternative? Do you really want the UK to put boots on the ground to support Ukraine in an unwinnable war? Are you ready to accept 1000’s of British soldiers being hunted by drones in dark, damp freezing trenches? My son? Your son or grandson?
Give time if we don’t help and we can surrender directly to putin. No shots fired.
How’s that for capitulation? Become a vassal state of the USSR.
Ukraine now looks to be the leader in drone warfare. Perhaps we need to learn very quick. Maybe we already are.
What makes you think that can be avoided by capitulation?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement
Are you aware which country (political block at the time) effectively actually ‘won’ WWII?
Complicated and not as straight forward as you want.
America/USSR. US held USSR afloat for years and financed and out produced the axis. UK defeated Germany with the BoB. Though a tanker of US 100 octane helped.
‘UK defeated Germany with the BoB’?
Right… 😉
That was the turning point. UK remained in the fight, a floating aircraft carrier and base for the US to and other allies to get on. Really, two fronts H really mucked up leaving us in the fight.
UK defeated, no convoys, U boat rule the Atlantic. Germany small fleet roams at will. Bismark and Tipriz no opposition.
Despite all the British nationalist propaganda myths claiming, wishing, that it was the BoB – there is general academic consensus that Stalingrad was the real turning point. The war was already effectively lost and won before D-day.
Sadly the UK lost 450K in WWII, including Blitz victims and colonials.
The US a similar number. However it took 25 – 30 million Russian/Soviet dead to defeat Hitler’s once unstoppable armies. 80% of Nazi Germany’s war effort was directed towards the Eastern Front.
Believe what you want. The numbers are not a tell all that happened.
Numbers tell us far more than nationalistic myths my friend. Would you have us not ‘believe’ the facts?
It’s also worth remembering that the Soviets were initially allies with the Nazis, before being betrayed. They made agreements to carve up Eastern Europe between them, helped the German airforce train in secret in the early years of Nazi rule (Germany had been banned from having an airforce), and participated in the invasion of Poland alongside Germany.
But of course, the Russians don’t like to talk about that part.
Just like the British don’t like to talk about Czechoslovakia then I guess…
In what way does their important role in defeating one megalomaniac prevent them from having their own 80 years later?
In what way do concerns about current political developments preclude us from being appreciative of Russia’s crucial contribution to defeating Nazism 80 years ago? Didn’t that save all of our sorry *****? Why the relectance to acknowledge this? Why the denial, the churlishness?
We should appreciate and honour the sacrifices of all those solders who fought and died defeating Nazism, irrespective of their nationality. But remembering their sacrifice does not mean we have to excuse or justify the actions of Russia in the 2020s or of the Soviet Union in the last century. Stalin himself was just as much of an authoritarian psychopath as Hitler was, with his own imperialistic ambitions. The war crimes committed by the Kremlin should not be shielded from criticism by appealing to past victories.
‘Stalin himself was just as much of an authoritarian psychopath as Hitler was…’
Why do we always have to listen to these purile British nationalist apologias, efforts to deprecate and disparage all others, and then always exhonerate ‘our own side’?
And Churchill, and his own ‘Empire’, was not a total authoritarian brute in India, Iraq, Ireland, etc, etc, ??
I am a supporter of Welsh independence, so I’m hardly an apologist for British nationalism. Acknowledging the crimes of the British Empire does not mean whitewashing the crimes of Stalin. In fact, it was a Welshman; Gareth Jones, who first exposed the Holodomor genocide of the 1930s in Ukraine to the world. There’s a crucial difference between an empire that committed brutal acts while still operating within a contested parliamentary system, and a totalitarian communist dictatorship built on mass terror, a personality cult, and the systematic starvation and extermination of millions of its own citizens. Churchill certainly deserves criticism for… Read more »
A ‘Welshman’? Not into elevating ethnic definitions of nationhood my friend. Gareth Jones uncovered starvation throughout the Soviet states – a result of agrarian reforms implemented too quickly – not a purposefully directed vendetta against Ukraine. Check it out… Re ‘all are guilty’? Yes they all are – so stop seeking to blackball some and not the others yes?
So you’re anti totalitarian communism. Fine – but that’s an altogether different debate in essence is it not? Soviet Russia’s leaders were also ideologically anti totalitarian fascism. Be grateful that you don’t have to contend with such an abomination on a large scale today.
The Holodomor in Ukraine and other Soviet regions was not “reforms implemented too quickly.” It is well documented that Stalin deliberately requisitioned grain, sealed borders, and withheld aid to punish populations resisting collectivisation. Millions died as a result, and discussion was banned in the Soviet Union until the 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor As for “anti-fascism,” the USSR only opposed fascism when it suited Stalin. Until 1941, he was allied with Hitler under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, dividing Eastern Europe for strategic gain. Once again we can condemn both British imperial abuses and Stalin’s totalitarian crimes without resorting to “all are guilty” arguments. If… Read more »
Oh good grief!!! ‘Well documented…’? By whom my good friend? Wikipedia, and other partisan media outlets frantically agumented every day by promulgators of Western narratives, discourses?
Whatever the expedient political treatises made at any one time. Are you seriously suggesting that Hitler did not hate Communism? That the inheritors of the 1917 Russian revolution did not hate Capitalism?
No, Hitler hated communism and the Soviet leadership opposed capitalism, but that doesn’t change the fact that Stalin made a tactical alliance with Hitler when it suited his strategic interests. Ideological opposition did not prevent the USSR from cooperating with fascist Germany to divide Eastern Europe, which underlines that anti-fascism was conditional, not principled. Also, how is dismissing the Holodomor as a “Western narrative” any different from those who would try to deny or minimise the Holocaust? Both are among the most well-documented crimes of the 20th century, established through archival evidence, survivor testimony, demographic data, and the work of… Read more »
duplicate post
Like it or not the US saved Europe. Without them we’d all be speaking German including the former USSR.
And now Vladimir is trashing their own contribution to that effort, just because the US wouldn’t let him join the EU because they needed a Russian bogeyman to justify their defence budget that funded their lucrative arms industry.
‘The US saved Europe’?
Who taught you that my friend?
Who taught you they didn’t? It wouldn’t have happened without them.
Really? So tell us how the US won WWII step by step, stage by stage? Fire away…
‘Who taught me they didn’t’? You made the claim my friend. The onus to provide the evidence is on you otherwise it’s a burden of proof fallacy.
It wouldn’t have happened without them.
Ermm… Not wishing to be facetious but aren’t we all now already speaking ‘German’ following the first successful Germanic invasion of these islands in the 5th, 6th, centuries? 😉
Trump has decided to pull the plug on yet one more of the US’s proxy wars because he’s decided that this one is now either unwinnable or unprofitable.
That’s it.
This is no new phenomenon. It’s happened many times – Vietnam, Afghanistan… Only difference here is that this is now happening in Europe leaving ‘his allies’ totally bewildered, all in a flap…
Trump is gaming for a shiny medal. Nothing more. His domestic policies are in tatters, his rating are plummeting. Putin basically said do this thing and we smooth the way for a Nobel. Plus a few tidy deals on the side. Putin has played the US via the worst president in US history.
Buy the ‘shiny medal’ narrative for your own comfort if you will – fine. Fact remains though – the war cannot be won without the US – whinge, rage against Trump as much as you like.
Then again we can always look to Starmer in his Arctic tundra fatigues I guess? 😉
He is that shallow. He whines and wheedles why he has not had it yet. His minions whine and wheedle for it. He calls Norway for it. The reason, Obama had it and he really hates that.
You cave to the aggressor, putin has plenty of people like you it seems.
So tell us how are you, your friends, ‘NOT going to cave in to the aggressor’? What practical steps do you recommend?
Conference of the excluded.
Poor Starmer – still straining to be of relevance. Sure evidence of Britain’s continuing rapid decline on the world stage. He’s desperate to get ‘boots on the ground’ to bolster his country’s, and his own’s, international status.
He thinks ethnic Russians in the Donbas will suffer Tommies rummaging through their stuff at checkpoints. They won’t. It ain’t gonna happen.
Putin needs to be put in his place. He cannot get away with this proposed land grabbing demand. If Ukraine agree he will be back for more. Arrest him, lock him up and throw away the key. Trump needs to make his mind up on who he truly supports too. He is all gob but achieves very little.
Big words. How do you propose going about achieving that goal practically my friend – without risking a wider conflict that is? Let’s hear your suggestions yes?
You sound like a quitter. World leaders need to get together and turn on Putin and completely cut off any business links they may have with Russia thus stopping any cash going in there that finances his armoury.
Better get your pop gun from the attic and get your British boots on the ground then eh Frank? 😉
With an area of 6.59 million square miles Russia is by far the biggest country in the world – almost twice that of Canada the second largest (3.86 million sq mls). Now it wants to use its aggressive invasion of Ukraine to steal up to 20% of Ukraine’s land. Just how much land does Russia want? It should certainly not be rewarded for starting a relentless war against Ukraine costing well over 100,000 lives to date. Putin’s declared peace terms essentially amounts to Ukraine’s capitulation which should be totally unacceptable to any civilized country.
With respect Gwyn. It’s hard to know where to begin when we have no grasp of the complexity of the geo-political aspirations at play here, likewise the ethnic politics…
Do we really want to live in a world where Trump and Putin are calling the shots? Don’t forget Trump and many within the Republican party has their own territorial ambitions towards their neighbours. What do we do if one of his predecessors decides to invade Mexico? Or if China invades Taiwan? Do you really think we could afford to impose economic sanctions on the US like we are doing with Russia? Of course not! The EU needs to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on the US for both its security and economic needs. Europe should be able to… Read more »
History demonstrates that appeasing aggressors only invites further violence—whether in the 1930s with Nazi Germany or today with Putin’s Russia. Supporting Ukraine is not only about helping a sovereign nation defend itself, but also about drawing a clear line that naked aggression and territorial conquest will not be tolerated in the 21st century. If Russia is allowed to succeed, it will not stop with Ukraine: Moldova, the Baltics, and beyond could be next. That’s why practical steps like providing military aid, enforcing strong sanctions, isolating Russia diplomatically, and maintaining unity within NATO and the EU are so important. The cost… Read more »
Starmer wants a war. He’s been yearning for one ever since he came to office. Labourites are often like that – craving to out-Tory the Tories on nationalism, militarism. Prancing around in the Baltic tundra in his winter fatigues trying to look tough. British delusions of grandeur, senses of entitlement, exceptionalism, the perceived central importance of Britain’s role in the world never end, even though the Empire has long gone. Colonel Blimp lives on… Outwitted by both Putin and Trump. Complicit in the Gaza genocide, on the ropes re Ukraine, and currently of no use to anyone – Starmer… Read more »
No, Putin wants a war. Why? Because the Russian economy is hopelessly dependent on oil and gas as the world is fast moving away from oil and gas. Only war buys Russia time to remake its economy to fix this. War, or joining the EU. Either would work.