D-Day at the White House: Starmer, Zelensky and EU leaders are to meet Trump.. but will he listen to a single word they say?
Sir Keir Starmer will join EU and Nato leaders to bolster Volodymyr Zelensky in his crunch White House meeting with Donald Trump on Monday.
They will present a united front in the hope of moderating Mr Trump’s treatment of the Ukrainian leader, whom he humiliated at the Oval Office in February.
European ministers fear that Mr Zelensky is walking into a trap laid by Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian leader said on Sunday that the ‘coalition of the willing’ – the UK and other nations that have pledged to support Kyiv – held a ‘useful’ two-hour video conference on Sunday.
He revealed that they had a ‘common view on what a peace agreement should be’ and insisted it did not include changing state borders by force.
In a sign of EU leaders’ bullishness, French president Emmanuel Macron said afterwards: ‘If we’re not strong today, we’ll pay dearly tomorrow.’
It came after Boris Johnson called on Sir Keir to lead global efforts to protect Ukraine from being carved up following Friday’s ‘vomit-inducing’ meeting between Mr Trump and Putin.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, the former prime minister insisted that although the summit made him ‘retch’, it was ‘justifiable and even essential’.
Sir Keir Starmer will join EU and Nato leaders to bolster Volodymyr Zelensky in his crunch White House meeting with Donald Trump on Monday. They will present a united front in the hope of moderating Mr Trump’s treatment of the Ukrainian leader
European ministers fear that Mr Zelensky is walking into a trap laid by Vladimir Putin . The Ukrainian leader said on Sunday that the ‘coalition of the willing’ – the UK and other nations that have pledged to support Kyiv – held a ‘useful’ two-hour video conference on Sunday
It came after Boris Johnson called on Sir Keir to lead global efforts to protect Ukraine from being carved up following Friday’s ‘vomit-inducing’ meeting between Mr Trump and Putin
He said it offered hope that ‘one day this war will end with a peace that protects Ukrainian freedom’ – but to make that happen ‘the Europeans, led by Britain, will have to step up’.
Sunday’s meeting of Europe’s heads of state came after Putin was widely regarded to have gained the upper hand at Friday’s summit in Anchorage, Alaska.
He was welcomed back on to the world stage from pariah status with red carpets and a ride in the US presidential limo before reportedly persuading Mr Trump to drop calls for a ceasefire ‘within two hours’.
Washington was also said to have agreed to the Kremlin proposition that Kyiv cede the whole Donbas region after Putin presented faked pictures that made it appear Ukrainian lines there were about to collapse.
But the President hit back on Sunday, slamming ‘fake news’ as he described the Alaskan summit as a ‘great meeting’ and told the world to ‘STAY TUNED’ for ‘BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA‘.
His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, also said the US delegation had forced Putin to accept ‘robust’, US backed, Nato-like security guarantees for Ukraine for the first time, which he described as ‘game-changing‘.
Mr Zelensky has appealed to Sir Keir and other European leaders to join him for ‘moral support and solidarity’.
Those answering the call include Mr Macron, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
Pictured: Sir Keir Starmer, Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Poland’s Donald Tusk in Kyiv in May
Sunday’s meeting of Europe’s heads of state came after Putin was widely regarded to have gained the upper hand at Friday’s summit in Anchorage, Alaska. He was welcomed back on to the world stage from pariah status with red carpets and a ride in the US presidential limo
Washington was also said to have agreed to the Kremlin proposition that Kyiv cede the whole Donbas region after Putin presented faked pictures that made it appear Ukrainian lines there were about to collapse
But the President hit back on Sunday, slamming ‘fake news’ as he described the Alaskan summit as a ‘great meeting’ and told the world to ‘STAY TUNED’ for ‘BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA’
Ahead of another dramatic day of global diplomacy over the future of Europe, No 10 said on Sunday that the PM ‘stands ready to support this next phase of further talks’.
Sir Keir will ‘reaffirm his backing for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes’, and ‘the path to peace cannot be decided without president Zelensky’.
Keen to keep Washington onside, Sir Keir also commended ‘President Trump’s efforts to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine’.
On Sunday, Mr Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, insisted that Putin was ‘the bad guy’ and should be treated as such during negotiations.
He said he knew Mr Trump liked to use a ‘velvet glove’ style in dealing with dictators, but he added: ‘The hammer needs to come and it needs to come immediately.’
Mr Pence told CNN that as well as meeting Mr Zelensky, Mr Trump should call for another sanctions bill against Russia to be passed ‘immediately’ in the Senate.
He also gave Mr Trump credit for pursuing his earlier ceasefire deal despite ‘many voices in and around the administration that would have cut Ukraine loose months ago’.
All eyes will be on the Oval Office on Monday where Mr Trump will try to persuade Mr Zelensky to agree to meet Putin and ‘make a deal‘.
Mr Zelensky has appealed to Sir Keir and other European leaders to join him for ‘moral support and solidarity’
Sir Keir will ‘reaffirm his backing for Ukraine will continue as long as it takes’, and ‘the path to peace cannot be decided without president Zelensky’. Keen to keep Washington onside, Sir Keir also commended ‘President Trump’s efforts to end Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine’. Pictured: Sir Keir and Zelensky at No 10 on August 17
In a worrying development, Putin reportedly convinced Washington that Ukraine must cede the Donbas – the collective name for Donetsk and Luhansk – as a condition for peace.
While Russia has taken most of Luhansk, it only holds about 75 per cent of Donetsk, which is both vital for the nation’s defence and also home to many of the rare-earth minerals Putin craves.
He has also taken about 74 per cent of the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
It is feared Mr Zelensky could be strong-armed by the President on Monday into accepting these terms or risk losing American support.
As he attempted to sidestep Moscow’s ambush, Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that the territorial issue ‘should be discussed only by the leaders of Ukraine and Russia’.
Flanked by Ms von der Leyen in Brussels, he said that ‘real negotiations’ must ‘start where the front line is now’.
He pointed out that Putin had been unable to take Donetsk ‘for 12 years’. Mr Zelensky also sought to bring back calls for a ceasefire at the outset of negotiations – a subject Russia apparently succeeded in removing from the summit on Friday.
He said: ‘We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation.’
On Sunday night, Mr Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence (pictured), insisted that Putin was ‘the bad guy’ and should be treated as such during negotiations. He said he knew Mr Trump liked to use a ‘velvet glove’ style in dealing with dictators
It is feared Mr Zelensky could be strong-armed by the President on Monday into accepting these terms or risk losing American support. Pictured: Zelensky and President Trump meet at the Oval Office in February
Before going to Anchorage, Mr Trump said forcing Russia to agree to a ceasefire was his priority, but he dropped the demand ‘two hours into his meeting’, the New York Post reported.
‘Figuratively, the President sort of threw up his hands and said, ‘I’m not interested in a ceasefire any more’,’ a source told the paper.
In exchange, Mr Trump allegedly got Putin to say: ‘I will not attack a European country.’
On social media on Sundayty, Mr Trump said he ‘had a great meeting in Alaska’ and complained that ‘if I got Russia to give up Moscow as part of the Deal, the Fake News and their PARTNER, the Radical Left Democrats, would say I made a terrible mistake‘.
Mr Witkoff, the US special envoy who has flitted between Moscow and Washington for months to pave the way for the current talks without once visiting Kyiv, defended the Trump administration’s performance on Friday.
He told CNN on Sunday: ‘We were able to win the following concession – that the US could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato’.
Nato’s Article 5 states that an armed attack on one member country would be considered an attack on all members.
Mr Zelensky described the US commitment to a security guarantee as ‘a historic decision’ but called on it to be ‘very practical’ in ‘delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea’.
President Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, also said the US delegation had forced Putin to accept ‘robust’, US backed, Nato-like security guarantees for Ukraine for the first time, which he described as ‘game-changing’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ideas were discussed in Alaska that ‘we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive of’. But he warned it may be that ‘peace is not going to be possible’
Mr Witkoff added that Russia said it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine.
He said: ‘There is an important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there.’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ideas were discussed in Alaska that ‘we know the Ukrainians could be very supportive of’. But he warned it may be that ‘peace is not going to be possible’.
Mr Zelensky said on Sunday night that if talks fail ‘then new sanctions must follow’, which Mr Rubio agreed with.
On Sunday night, the UK and the rest of the coalition of the willing ‘re-emphasised the readiness to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased’.
