Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stressed the United Kingdom’s intention to provide “robust and credible” security guarantees to prevent Russia from attacking Ukraine again as Russian President Vladimir Putin has yet to sign up to a US-brokered truce proposal as fighting rages on the ground.
“We will build up Ukraine’s own defences and armed forces and be ready to deploy as a ‘coalition of the willing’ in the event of a peace deal to help secure Ukraine on the land, at sea and in the sky,” Starmer said on Saturday after a virtual meeting with 25 European Union and other world leaders as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We agreed military planners would convene again in the UK this week to progress practical plans for how our militaries can support Ukraine’s future security,” Starmer added.
The meeting was held after Putin on Friday agreed in principle to an immediate 30-day ceasefire put forward by Washington and already accepted by Ukraine. But Putin also said there were issues to work out. These included questions on who would monitor the ceasefire and whether the pause in fighting could be used for Kyiv to mobilise new forces at a time when Russia is regaining ground in its western region of Kursk, parts of which were occupied by Ukrainian forces in a lightning offensive in August.
Questions loom on whether Putin’s response signalled a sincere step towards peace or a deflecting tactic to continue the war without fully rejecting the proposal by the United States – a move that could have angered President Donald Trump. The Kremlin has so far benefitted considerably as Trump drastically reverses decades of US foreign policy by upending the transatlantic alliance while opening up to Russia.
“The Kremlin’s dithering and delay over President Trump’s ceasefire proposal and Russia’s continued barbaric attacks on Ukraine run entirely counter to President Putin’s stated desire for peace,” Starmer said.
Soon after the virtual meeting, Zelenskyy pressed his Western allies to define a “clear position” on the security guarantees, including basing soldiers in Ukraine.
“The contingent must be stationed on Ukrainian soil,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “This is a security guarantee for Ukraine and a security guarantee for Europe.”
War continues on several fronts
Meanwhile, fighting on the ground continues.
Some military analysts said Russia is close to ejecting Ukrainian forces from their months-old foothold Kursk, prompting Trump to warn that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers were “completely surrounded”.
In a statement on social media after being briefed by his top general, Zelenskyy insisted Kyiv’s troops were not encircled in Kursk but Moscow was accumulating forces nearby for a separate strike. The reversal of fortunes in Kursk weakens Ukraine’s leverage in potential territory negotiations. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the question of territory was “complicated” and should be discussed in detail at a later date.
He also addressed the battlefield situation near the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, saying it had “stabilised” and Ukraine had successfully used a new domestically produced long-range missile in combat.
In other developments, Russia and Ukraine traded heavy aerial blows with both sides reporting more than 100 enemy drones over their respective territories. A fire broke out near an oil facility in Russia’s Volgograd region after a Ukrainian drone attack.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that it shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, 64 of which were destroyed over the Volgograd region. Drones were also shot down over the Voronezh, Belgorod, Bryansk, Rostov and Kursk regions.
