Starmer’s summit is high stakes for Zelensky

There is only one story dominating the news this weekend following Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous meeting on Friday with the US President in the Oval office. After the Ukrainian president’s conversation with Donald Trump and JD Vance descended into a war of words, Zelensky’s trip to the White House was cut short and a planned minerals deal between the two countries went unsigned. Now the future of the Ukraine war has been thrown into doubt as talk grows that the US could halt all military help and a deal could be off the cards.

Since then, there has been a frantic effort by the UK government along with European allies to try to repair the damage and get the peace talks on track. Today Starmer will host a summit of European and Canadian leaders to discuss support for Ukraine. While this meeting was in the diary before Friday’s bust-up, the summit has now taken on a new sense of urgency. The UK Prime Minister hopes to act as a bridge between Zelensky and Trump. Starmer was initially buoyed by his meeting with Trump on Thursday in which the US President showered praise on the Labour leader – later telling Spectator World about Starmer’s ‘beautiful’ accent.

However, any self-congratulation was cut short when news reached 10 Downing Street of Zelensky’s tense exchange with Trump and his vice president. Yet despite the warm words, the UK prime minister did not succeed in winning a specific security guarantee on his visit. Instead, the main positives from the UK perspective were Trump backing Article 5 of Nato on mutual defence and a sense that the positive exchanges laid the groundwork for a good meeting with Zelensky the next day. Given the latter ‘win’ failed to come to fruition, the hope now is that Starmer’s personal relationship with Trump at least allows him to have a conversation with Trump and try to shape events – as evidenced by the fact Starmer spoke to both Zelensky and Trump on Friday evening.

The decision was then made on Saturday to give Zelensky a hero’s welcome at 10 Downing Street, with Starmer going out to meet him and hugging the Ukrainian leader. Meanwhile, Rachel Reeves has announced further funding for Ukraine in the form of a loan of over £2 billion. It shows how Starmer hopes to position the UK government – as a supportive friend to Ukraine who can also be an ally to the United States. It comes after some European figures have spoken out against Trump since Friday’s row. In a sign of the delicate balancing act Starmer must strike, the Mail on Sunday reports on cross-party unease that Trump could still see the red carpet rolled out in the UK and be granted a state visit.

When Starmer meets with European counterparts this afternoon, the hope will be that they can come up with a united response. Speaking to the BBC, Starmer revealed that the UK would work with France and potentially a few others to craft a peace plan that they could then present to the United States. However, that could mean some difficult decisions and calculations, such as whether Zelensky must apologise to get the US back on side, whether European countries could really fund the Ukraine defence without the Americans and how far they could go in sending troops should a peacekeeping force be required.