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Sir Keir Starmer is set to host Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his French and German counterparts as European powers seek to rally support for Kyiv at a time of growing US pressure to agree a peace deal with Russia.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz are coming to Monday’s Downing Street meeting to show support for Zelenskyy amid concerns the US could try to force Kyiv to accept a settlement that has had significant Russian input.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday suggested Zelenskyy was holding up a deal and hadn’t even “read” the latest plan.
European concerns about the US position have been fuelled by the publication of a US national security strategy blaming European officials for standing in the way of a peace deal. The strategy said it was a “core interest” of the US to bring an “expeditious” end to the fighting and “re-establish strategic stability with Russia”.
On Sunday, Starmer spoke to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and both reiterated the “need for sustained international support for Ukraine’s defence”, according to a readout from Downing Street.
The purpose of the meeting in London was to “maintain Ukraine’s solidity at a difficult moment”, an Élysée Palace official said.
The talks would aim to “consolidate” a European-Ukrainian position on peace terms that “would allow us to converge on a solid basis with the Americans”, the official added. “It is important the Americans hear from the Ukrainians what is possible and what is not possible.”
Zelenskyy is expected to brief the other leaders on recent talks between Ukrainian and US officials.
Merz is expected to update his counterparts on Belgium’s opposition to EU plans to use frozen Russian sovereign assets, after meeting Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
The initiative, which the UK has offered to join and which EU leaders will debate at a summit on December 18-19, involves using frozen Russian sovereign assets held in Europe to raise a loan for Ukraine to fund its military and budgetary needs.
European efforts to tap the Russian assets have been given added urgency after the White House last month proposed taking them to invest in Ukraine and Russia under the original terms of its peace proposal.
Ukrainian officials, backed by European capitals, have mounted an intense rearguard diplomatic effort to improve the terms of the US plan.
Zelenskyy said from Kyiv on Saturday that he had held “a long and substantive phone call” with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside the Ukrainian president’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov and chief of general staff Andriy Hnatov after the four had met in Miami.
The Miami meeting came after Witkoff and Kushner had sat for five hours with President Vladimir Putin inside the Kremlin last week to discuss some of the points in a revised US peace proposal.
He said he had agreed with the Americans “on the next steps and formats for talks with the United States” and would receive a “detailed” rundown of the Miami meetings when he saw Umerov and Hnatov in person.
In his nightly TV address on Sunday, Zelenskyy said: “We are already starting a new diplomatic week — there will be consultations with European leaders. Primarily security issues, support for our resilience, support packages for our defence. First and foremost, air defence, long-term financing for Ukraine. Of course, we will also talk about a common vision, common positions in the negotiations.
“I expect detailed information from them about everything that was said to the American representatives in Moscow, about the nuances that the Americans are ready to modify in negotiations with us, with the ‘Russians’.
“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions; it was a constructive conversation, though not an easy one.”
At the talks in Downing Street Merz is expected to raise concerns that Berlin, the largest purveyor of military aid to Ukraine, might end up covering most of the bill for supporting Ukraine next year given how fiscally constrained France and the UK are.
Russian forces have escalated their attacks on Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure in recent days, causing widespread power blackouts across the country.
Besides discussing with his western counterparts their plan to ensure that a US-brokered peace deal is fair, the Ukrainian president is likely to inquire about more military and financial assistance.
“We continue working with our partners to ensure that, in response to these attacks, our defences grow stronger,” he said. “The priority is clear: more air-defence systems and missiles, and more support for our defenders.”
Yvette Cooper will make her first visit to Washington on Monday since being appointed UK foreign secretary in September. She will meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Trump’s Middle East adviser Massad Boulos to discuss Ukraine and the situation in Gaza.
Additional reporting by James Politi in Washington
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