British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has embraced Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the steps of Downing Street as he launched an attempt to bolster the Ukrainian president after his explosive encounter with Donald Trump.
But in private Starmer will on Sunday warn Zelenskyy and other European leaders at a summit in London that the road to peace in Ukraine must run through the White House.
On Saturday night, after meeting Zelenskyy, Starmer called Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron, to update them. British officials said the talks were “focused on moving forward”.
One ally of Starmer said: “The PM will bring people together and politely make sure they realise that there is only one negotiation in town — and that’s President Trump’s.”
Another said Starmer would tell European leaders they need to match their verbal support for Zelenskyy with action: “What Ukraine needs now is guns and butter. It doesn’t need people tweeting and virtue signalling.”
Starmer has urged Trump and Zelenskyy to finalise a deal to allow the US to share some of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, according to people briefed on the conversations, in the wake of Friday’s Oval Office bust-up.
On Saturday Starmer gave a public show of support to Zelenskyy, who was greeted by cheering from members of the public as he arrived in Downing Street, telling him he had the “full backing” of the UK.
“You heard the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you and that we are absolutely determined to stand with you,” Starmer said, ahead of private talks.
Starmer and Zelenskyy signed a deal in which the UK will make a £2.26bn loan to Ukraine backed by profits from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets.
Zelenskyy’s reception in Downing Street was in marked contrast to his hostile encounter with Trump the day before in the White House.
The Ukraine president, who will meet King Charles on Sunday in another high-profile show of British backing, told Starmer that “we count on your support”.
Starmer will host 14 European leaders in London on Sunday in a bid to rally military and financial support for Ukraine, including providing help to secure a peace with Russia.
The British prime minister, who has already offered to put troops on the ground in Ukraine after any ceasefire, hopes that several other European nations will follow suit, according to European diplomats.
Starmer told Zelenskyy during Saturday’s meeting that he must first patch up relations with Trump and that any peace will not last unless it is guaranteed by the US, British officials said.
“The prime minister’s priority is to do whatever it takes to defend Ukraine,” said one ally of Starmer. “That means the US has to be involved. You have got to fix that relationship and get back to the minerals deal.”
France has also offered troops to help secure a peace in Ukraine; Starmer and Macron will use Sunday’s meeting to try to galvanise a more muscular European response.
Macron also called for the US and Ukrainian presidents to set aside their differences and said that Europe still needed Trump to help secure peace.
“I think that beyond the frustration, everyone needs to return to calm, respect, and recognition so that we can move forward concretely because what is at stake is too important,” Macron said in a joint interview with four French newspapers.
Macron said Europe needed help from the US to offer security guarantees to Ukraine because it would take years to build up its own military to reach self-sufficiency.
“That is why in the short term, we must do everything we can to keep the support of the Americans,” said Macron.
He cast an EU summit to be held in Brussels on March 6 as a key moment to find the “massive funding, probably corresponding to hundreds of billions of euros” that would be needed to build up European defence.
Starmer wants Europe to put Ukraine in a strong position for talks with Russia — including arming Kyiv and toughening sanctions on Moscow — and to draw up a viable plan for securing any peace deal.
“In partnership with our allies, we must intensify our preparations for the European element of security guarantees alongside continued discussions with the United States,” Starmer said.
The British prime minister held warm talks with Trump in the White House on Thursday — just 24 hours before Zelenskyy clashed with a furious US president and the vice-president JD Vance.
British officials do not believe that Starmer’s efforts were in vain or that he was played by the US president. One said: “Our relationship with the president is better than it was at the start of the week and that’s important.
“What happened with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office makes it even more important than ever that the PM and Macron went to the White House.”
Downing Street is expecting attendees at Sunday’s summit to include Olaf Scholz of Germany, Giorgia Meloni of Italy and Donald Tusk of Poland, as well as Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, and Mark Rutte, Nato secretary-general.
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau and Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan are also expected to attend.
The summit will take place at Lancaster House, a 19th century mansion close to Buckingham Palace in central London. Starmer will also hold calls with the leaders of the three Baltic states.
A French official said last week that early indications were that the UK and France were likely to provide the biggest contingents in any post-truce stabilisation force, but there might be offers of help from some other countries.
Germany and Poland, which both support Ukraine, are among the countries that have so far not offered to send troops to the war-stricken country to help secure any peace deal.