Zelensky warmly embraced by UK Prime Minister Starmer, and will meet King Charles
If there was any doubt about where Britain stood in the increasing divide between Ukraine and Europe with the US, Sir Keir Starmer’s warm hug of Volodymyr Zelensky, and the King’s meeting with the Ukrainian leader give two strong clues.
King Charles is to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in a show of British soft power and support on Sunday morning in the latest warm embrace of the embattled Ukrainian leader.
Mr Zelensky flew into Britain on Saturday, just a day after the meltdown White House press conference that has marked a dramatic turning point in diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe.
On Saturday afternoon Mr Zelensky met British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to work out the key points of a Sunday summit featuring 18 European heads of state – primarily how to encourage other European nations to support the offer from the British and French to provide peacekeepers in Ukraine if a peace deal eventuates and how Europe could step into a breach if the United States withdraws from the region.
Sir Keir told Mr Zelensky he had “full backing across the United Kingdom and we stand with Ukraine for as long as it may take” as the pair embraced outside Downing Street.
Mr Zelensky replied “we count on your support” and “for being such a big support from the beginning” in expressing thanks to the UK.
Hours earlier, Ukraine and the UK unveiled a $4.6bn loan agreement to support Ukraine’s defence capabilities, to be paid back with the profits of immobilised sovereign Russian assets.
“The funds will be directed toward weapons production in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X.
“This is true justice – the one who started the war must be the one to pay.”
While extensive points from the Downing Street meeting were not released, the relaxed body language between Mr Zelensky and Sir Keir was diametrically different to when the Ukrainian leader met Mr Trump on Friday.
The tension at the White House centred around whether the US would provide security guarantees in any possible peace deal, and if they did, when they would make those guarantees.
Ukraine wants US security guarantees upfront to put them in a stronger negotiating position when dealing with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But Mr Trump believes the allies should take Mr Putin at his word in a peace deal, that Europe should take on the burden of any security guarantee and says that Mr Zelensky is not being serious about wanting peace.
On Saturday morning in an explanation of his position, Mr Zelensky said: “I want the US to stand more firmly on our side”. And repeated: “We need the US role in defining security guarantees – what kind, what volume and when. Once these guarantees are in place we can talk with Russia, Europe and the US about diplomacy”.
Mr Zelensky said it will be difficult without US support.
“But we can’t lose our will, our freedom or our people’’ he said.
The symbolism of Mr Zelensky meeting King Charles at his Norfolk country retreat, Sandringham House, is much less the grand invitation given to Mr Trump, who has been invited for an unprecedented second state visit – complete with military parade and sumptuous dinner – to meet the King at a date to be determined.
Mr Zelensky’s invite is an informal comfy welcome.
Sandringham is one of the King’s favoured estates: it is where the royal family gathers at Christmas time and the 8000 hectares of woodland is a calming environ full of wild roaming deer, birds of prey and birdlife.
That Downing Street and Sir Keir would have pressed upon the King to open up his private home, after his regular Sunday church service, for such an important diplomatic mission, is not contested.
For Sir Keir is increasingly in a bind.
He had impressed Mr Trump late last week by increasing UK defence spending and digging deep into the “special relationship” of the two countries to develop a united approach in regards to developments in artificial intelligence and avoid punishing tariffs.
But he has also presented himself as the “bridge” between the European Union, which Mr Trump has no particular warmth towards, and the US administration, which has made it clear it has no desire to provide a US peacekeeping force inside Ukraine.
It is no surprise Mr Zelensky headed straight back to the generous clutch of European friends in London after the bitter public contretemps in the United States, but Sir Keir now risks further ire from Washington if he embarrasses Mr Trump with overtly lavish support of Mr Zelensky.
However if the British encourage the Europeans to pick up the vexed security guarantees in a peace deal, Mr Trump may well be satisfied.
A No.10 spokesperson said Sir Keir was “doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine”.
Sunday’s summit will decide the broad parameters of support for Ukraine by its neighbours on the question of ongoing military aid, further Russian sanctions and how the war may pan out if the US is no longer involved.
Such is the panic, European leaders have already scheduled yet another emergency summit for this Thursday.
In a short few weeks the US has shifted from being a dependable European ally to a neutral observer and may in the end not even want to be involved as deal-maker.
Europe has been arguing that Ukraine has to be at the table for any peace deal, but what if the US no longer wants to be host of that setting?
Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt told BBC Radio 4 a sliver of hope remained for a peace deal because Mr Trump knows if the US withdraws from Ukraine like it did in Afghanistan it would be “very bad for his reputation, so in the end he needs a ceasefire that both Zelensky and Putin are part of’’.
He called for both sides to take time to allow tempers to cool down. However there is an air of ongoing nervousness around all of these discussions.
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