UK and France to work on Ukraine peace plan, Starmer says
Prime Minister Sir Kyle Stamer said Britain and France would work with Ukraine to “develop a plan to fight Russia – and then “discuss the plan with the United States”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be held at the European Leaders’ Summit and has had a fierce exchange with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House two days later.
Sir Kyle and Laura Kuenssberg told BBC One’s Sunday that his current “driving purpose” is to act as a “bridge” between two men.
When asked about how he felt as if he was spitting at the White House, Sir Kyle tried to play the incident, saying “no one wanted to see” and admitting he felt “uncomfortable.”
He said the prime minister’s response was to answer the phone on Trump and Zelensky that night to “return us to central focus.”
“There are many different routes that people can take. One is to raise the anger of all of us.”
Another option, he said, is to “roll up my sleeves” and call two men quickly – and then talk to French President Emmanuel Macron about the role that Europe’s leading countries will play.
“Because my reaction is that we have to bridge this, we have to find a way to work together because we have been in the bloody conflict for three years and we need to achieve lasting peace.”
In the interview, Sir Kyle carefully avoided any responsibility for the deal and insisted that he “clear in my mind” that Trump “want lasting peace” and answered “yes” when he was asked directly whether he believed Trump could trust.
He added that Zelensky could also trust but not trust Russian President Vladimir Putin – that’s why the United States provides security assurances for any peace agreement.
The Prime Minister acknowledged that European security guarantees must be led by a “coalition of willingness”.
“Europeans have stood up in the last three years,” Sir Kyle said, but “usually Europe needs to do more in terms of its own defense and security, which is why I say we need to increase spending, we have to increase capacity, we have to coordinate more, because in the Ukrainian conflict, we have seen coordination not exist.”
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister announced that he would cut foreign aid budget to fund increases Defense funding to 2.5% National income by 2027 Resign His Minister of International Development Anneliese Dodds.
The move comes after Trump calls on U.S. NATO allies to increase defense spending to 5% of their respective national revenues.
