US president Donald Trump’s surprise call with Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war in Ukraine has sent the UK government scrambling to catch up, with prime minister Keir Starmer insisting that Ukraine should not be sidelined and must be “at the heart” of any talks.
Mr Starmer told ITV on Thursday that he agreed there should be an “irreversible path” for Ukraine to join the US-led Nato military alliance, despite US defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s description of this as “unrealistic”.
Mr Starmer also appeared to open the door to UK troops taking part in a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine: “If there is peace there needs to be some sort of security guarantee for Ukraine and the UK will play its part in that.”
The announcement that Mr Trump had in effect opened peace talks with Mr Putin over the head of Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, led to urgent questions being tabled in the House of Commons on Thursday morning, as well as a hastily written statement from parliament’s defence committee. It called on countries in Europe to play a greater direct role “in the defence of Ukraine”.
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“We count on the UK government to show leadership in this. If we don’t support Ukraine, Russia will be emboldened,” said Tan Dhesi, the defence committee chair.
In the Commons, former prime minister Rishi Sunak echoed this by also suggesting that Britain should be prepared to send peacekeeping troops into Ukraine, with a military presence “across land, sea and air” to help guarantee the invaded nation’s security.
Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge tabled the urgent question to the government, which was represented in the House by junior defence ministers as the defence secretary, John Healey, was in Brussels for a Nato meeting.
Mr Cartlidge urged the government to warn other Nato member states that any perception that Mr Putin and Russia had “won” from a settlement in Ukraine would lead only to the “illusion of peace” and renewed danger down the line. “It will not make the world a safer place,” the Conservative MP said. “Far from it.”
[ Trump’s opening gambit to end war shakes Ukraine and stirs RussiaOpens in new window ]
Former defence secretary Ben Wallace, who served in Mr Sunak’s Tory government, compared Mr Trump’s call with Mr Putin to former UK prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in 1938.
“The stench of appeasement is once again returning,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
The need to be seen to push back against any move by the US to bypass Ukraine creates a complex diplomatic conundrum for Mr Starmer, who is simultaneously trying to court Mr Trump to ensure Britain does not get caught up in a trade war that the US president’s tariffs might spark with Europe.
