UK's Starmer calls on allies to make concrete commitments at Ukraine meeting

Starmer hopes Saturday's video call will see the so-called 'coalition of the willing' come up with firm commitments of help for Ukraine in the run-up to any peace agreement and after that to ensure the nation's security.

London: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a meeting of about 25 European leaders and other allies on Saturday that they would need to make concrete commitments to support Ukraine and increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire.

Starmer hopes Saturday's video call will see the so-called 'coalition of the willing' - a group of Western nations including Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand but not the United States - come up with firm commitments of help for Ukraine ahead of any peace agreement and after that to ensure the nation's security.

Opening the discussions, Starmer accused Putin of trying to delay peace talks, saying if he was serious about peace then he had to stop attacks on Ukraine and agree a ceasefire.

"My feeling is that sooner or later, he's going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussion," Starmer said.

"But, and this is a big but for us this morning in our meeting, we can't sit back and simply wait for that to happen. We have to keep pushing ahead, pushing forward, and preparing for peace and a peace that will be secure and that will last."

The meeting is being choreographed to show wide support for Ukraine from Western nations. Starmer will be seeking offers of logistical, financial or military support for Kyiv to put it in a strong position for talks.

The call builds on a flurry of diplomacy between European and other Western countries to find ways to help Ukraine after US President Donald Trump upended Washington's supportive approach and launched peace talks with Russia.

Trump said there was a "very good chance" the war could come to an end after his envoy, Steve Witkoff, held a lengthy meeting with Putin on Thursday night in Moscow that the US president described as "very good and productive".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who joined Saturday's virtual meeting, has also said he sees "a good chance" to end the war, having "solid security understandings" with European partners.

He has said he was discussing with Kyiv's allies future security guarantees and also economic support, adding that 100 per cent air defence cover would be required as deterrence in a peace deal.

Starmer has said Britain could send peacekeepers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal, but has called on Washington to offer a security 'backstop' to those forces, a measure he believes is essential to deter Putin from attacking again.

He told participants at Saturday's meeting that they too had to be prepared to defend any deal.

"That means strengthening Ukraine so they can defend themselves ... in terms of military capability, in terms of funding, in terms of the provision of further support from all of us to Ukraine, secondly, being prepared to defend any deal ourselves through a coalition of the willing," he said.

On Thursday, Putin said Russia supported a U.S. proposal for a ceasefire in principle but that fighting could not be paused until a number of conditions were met.

He has said he wants Ukraine to drop its ambitions to join NATO, Russia to control the entirety of the four Ukrainian regions it has claimed as its own, and the size of the Ukrainian army to be limited - demands rejected by Kyiv.