POLITICO on Tuesday named Trump the most influential figure shaping European politics in the year ahead, a recognition previously conferred on leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson challenged Trump’s framing of the Ukraine peace negotiations, which have entered a pivotal moment almost four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“I would reject that,” the spokesperson said. “You’ve seen the number of countries involved in the Coalition of the Willing discussions. You would also see the work that the U.K. has done in terms of leading the response on sanctions, including against the shadow fleet [carrying embargoed Russian goods].”
However, they confirmed that British support for the U.S.-led peace plan for Ukraine remained strong, and welcomed “the significant U.S. efforts to bring about peace to Ukraine, which no one wants more than President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy.”
Washington has held separate talks with both Moscow and Kyiv, neither of which has yielded an outcome that satisfies both sides.
The spokesperson also pushed back against the U.S. president’s desciption of the continent as a “decaying” group of nations led by “weak” people.