Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet Keir Starmer and the leaders of France and Germany for talks in Downing Street, as US President Donald Trump continues to push for a peace deal with Russia. Sir Keir, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will present a united front in support of Ukraine at the Number 10 meeting on Monday.
Russia’s assault continued over the weekend, with a barrage of 653 drones and 51 missiles targeting power stations and a railway hub near Kyiv in the early hours of Saturday morning. Kyiv and its western allies say Russia is trying to cripple the Ukrainian power grid and deny civilians access to heat, light and running water for a fourth consecutive winter.
President Trump’s advisers, including son-in-law Jared Kushner and US special envoy Steve Witkoff, are holding talks with Ukrainian officials in Florida as they continue work on a peace deal.
But European leaders were shocked when the White House published a 28-point peace plan which heavily favoured Russia last month. It included demands that Ukraine hand over the eastern Donbas region, including areas Russia’s miliary has failed to seize, and agree to shrink the size of its army.
The US-backed plan also ruled out the deployment of European peacekeepers and said Kyiv must relinquish long-range weapons – with Mr Trump demanding that Ukraine accept the proposal.
America has since toned down its rhetoric and in a joint statement, the US and Ukraine agreed “that real progress toward any agreement depends on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace, including steps toward de-escalation and cessation of killings”.
European leaders remain concerned that President Trump is pushing Kyiv to agree a deal that will reward Russia for its aggression, after four years of war.
It comes after the White House published a National Security Strategy stressing plans to “negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine”.
The document, described by Donald Trump as “a roadmap to ensure that America remains the greatest and most successful nation in human history”, also included explicit plans to interfere in the internal politics of European countries.
It said US policy included “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”
The document highlighted Europe’s dwindling share of the global economy, adding: “This economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.
“The larger issues facing Europe include activities of the European Union and other transnational bodies that undermine political liberty and sovereignty, migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence.”