Prime Minister Keir Starmer hails 'breakthrough' on security guarantees after Ukraine talks

Sir Keir Starmer has hailed a “breakthrough” in efforts to end the war in Ukraine as Donald Trump said he would broker a meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian presidents and that the US would back European security guarantees.

The Prime Minister was one of several European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, who travelled to Washington on Monday as Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with the US President.

Sir Keir said work with the US on what the security guarantees would entail could start as soon as Tuesday.

“The two outcomes were a real significant breakthrough when it comes to security guarantees, because we’re now going to be working with the US on those security guarantees,” he told the BBC.

“We’ve tasked our teams, some of them are even arriving tomorrow, to start the detailed work on that.”

Trump said he had spoken directly with Vladimir Putin to begin planning a meeting between the Russian leader and Zelensky, which will then be followed by a three-way meeting involving himself.

The US president said Moscow will “accept” multinational efforts to guarantee Ukraine’s security.

Zelensky, meanwhile, said he was “ready” for bilateral and trilateral meetings.

But he told reporters following the White House meeting that if Russia does “not demonstrate a will to meet, then we will ask the United States to act accordingly”.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said the US and Europe would “do more” on tariffs and sanctions against Russia if the country “is not playing ball” on direct talks with Ukraine, in comments to Fox News.

Sir Keir described the talks as “good and constructive” and said there was a “real sense of unity” between the European leaders, Trump and Zelensky.

He said Trump’s plans to arrange the bilateral and trilateral meetings showed a recognition that Ukraine must be involved in talks.

“That is a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues, whether it’s territory or the exchange of prisoners, or the very serious issue of the return of children, that is something where Ukraine must be at the table.”

Trump called the talks “very good”.

“During the meeting we discussed security guarantees for Ukraine, which guarantees would be provided by the various European countries, with a co-ordination with the United States of America,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

“Everyone is happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine.

“At the conclusion of the meetings, I called president Putin and began arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between president Putin and president Zelensky.

“After the meeting takes place, we will have a trilat which would be the two presidents plus myself.”

The US president met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, where he declared there was “no deal until there’s a deal” to end more than three years of fighting in eastern Europe.

“The Alaska summit reinforced my belief that while difficult, peace is within reach and I believe, in a very significant step, President Putin agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said on Monday.

“And this is one of the key points that we need to consider.”

He later said: “We also need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory taken into consideration the current line of contact.”

Future three-way talks “have a good chance” of stopping the conflict, the US president said.

But he appeared to share conflicting views on whether a ceasefire was necessary to stop the war.

“I don’t think you need a ceasefire,” he originally said, before later explaining that, “all of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace”.

Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, had suggested over the weekend that measures similar to Nato’s article five mutual defence provision – that an attack on one member is an attack on the entire bloc – could be offered by the US without Kyiv joining the alliance.

Sir Keir welcomed plans for “article five-style guarantees” during Monday’s talks and said that they would fit with the work of his “coalition of the willing” group of countries.

He said to Trump: “Your indication of security guarantees, of some sort of article five-style guarantees, fits with what we’ve been doing with the coalition of the willing, which we started some months ago, bringing countries together and showing that we were prepared to step up to the plate when it came to security.

“With you coming alongside, the US alongside, what we’ve already developed, I think we could take a really important step forward today – a historic step, actually, could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe.”

Sir Keir also described potential future trilateral talks as a “sensible next step”.

The PA news agency understands the Prime Minister disrupted his holiday plans over the weekend to join calls, including with Trump and Zelensky, before he headed to Washington, as reported in The Times.

Zelensky, whom Trump greeted at the door of the West Wing with a handshake earlier in the evening, wore a black shirt with buttons and a black blazer to the meeting at the White House.

His attire had appeared to become a point of irritation for Trump during a previous meeting in February.

Early in the meeting, the Ukrainian described the talks as “really good”, saying they had been “the best” so far.

Zelensky said: “We are very happy with the president that all the leaders are here and security in Ukraine depends on the United States and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts.”