‘Generational moment’: UK urges Europe to step up Ukraine support

At an emergency security summit in Paris, Keir Starmer said any future peacekeeping support in Ukraine must have US backing or Vladimir Putin could attack again.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine won’t accept any peace deal imposed on Kyiv by US and Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged European leaders to step up at a “generational” moment for security and “ramp up support” for Ukraine after Washington sidelined them from peace talks with Russia.

On Tuesday (AEDT), premiers emerged from emergency talks in Paris without an immediate response to the Trump administration’s shock move to distance them from negotiations, but they failed to swing in behind Starmer’s earlier suggestion of a peacekeeping force if there was a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

On Monday (AEDT) Sir Keir offered to send British troops as part of an international contingent to enforce any borders or buffer zones but his idea was hosed down before leaders had even arrived at the Elysee Palace.

Poland, Spain and Germany immediately ruled out any such peacekeeping force.

After the meeting, Starmer urged Europeans to step up defence spending and capabilities to ensure their collective security.

“At stake is not just Ukraine, but it is existential for Europe as a whole and vital for Britain’s national future: it is a once in a generation moment for collective security,’ Sir Keir said.

Sir Keir called for any future peacekeeping support in Ukraine to have US backing because without it, Vladimir Putin would not be deterred from attacking again.

He acknowledged that the recent statements of the Trump administration shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Mr Trump has long been calling for Europe to take a bigger role in its own defence.

“It is time for Europe to step up and meet demands for our own security,’’ he said, adding that the US wasn’t going to leave NATO but Europeans had to do more by stepping up both spending and in the capabilities provided.

Sir Keir said he would meet Mr Trump next week and then report back to the European leaders.

“Today’s informal meeting of EU leaders is a vital first step in responding to that challenge,’’ he said.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said calls to send peacekeepers to Ukraine was completely premature and highly inappropriate.

“I am even a little irritated by these debates, I want to say that quite frankly,” he said.

“The discussion is being held over Ukraine’s heads, over the outcome of peace talks that have not taken place and to which Ukraine has not said yes and where it has not sat at the table.

“This is highly inappropriate, to put it quite frankly and honestly. We do not know what the outcome will be.”

European leaders are scrambling to respond to President Trump’s overtures to Mr Putin and to ramp up their own security spending as the United States redraws its decades-long support for Europe amid the economic cost of supporting Ukraine.

Europe has been kept on the sidelines of the peace talks held by US and Russian officials in Riyadh.

However on Monday Mr Trump’s peace envoy General Keith Kellogg said no options were off the table – including whether US forces would be part of any peacekeeping role.

Speaking after a meeting with NATO in Brussels, Gen Kellogg said: “The policy has always been that you take no options off the table. You don’t want to get into a negotiating position where options are taken up.”

He also insisted that a peace deal wouldn’t be imposed on Kyiv, saying Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “will make that call” over any agreement between the United States and Russia.

The Paris meeting included leaders from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the European Union as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Just hours before the talks a leaked document dated February 7 2025 and claimed to have been given to the office of Volodymyr Zelensky, was published in Britain, showing the US was demanding near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy in US$500bn reparations for supporting Ukraine in the Russian war.

The document, revealed by the UK’s Telegraph newspaper shows the US demands are not just confined to President Donald Trump’s desire to gain access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in return for continuing US support.

The legal document sets out a 50-50 Ukraine-United States joint investment fund which extends to ports, infrastructure, oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country as well as ongoing licenses.

Described by The Telegraph as a “US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity’’, the document has reportedly caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.

The document may have been behind Mr Zelensky’s increasingly desperate plea to the Munich Security Conference on the weekend to create a European Army to help protect borders in any peace deal, with the Ukraine leader acknowledging he needed European leverage to offset a high economic price for US support.

The document sets out how the US-Ukraine joint investment fund would operate so hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.

It proposes the US will take 50 per cent of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50 per cent of the financial value of all new licences issued to third parties for the future monetisation of resources. In regards to all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals.

On Monday afternoon Mr Zelensky said “negotiations are moving fast with Europe”.

He said: “Everyone told me that what happened (at the Munich Security Conference) accelerated everything”.