coalition of the willing

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Sunday that the UK and France will work with Ukraine to draw up a ceasefire plan to be presented to the United States.

The initiative came about after Starmer’s telephone diplomacy with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron following the acrimonious fallout between Zelenskyy and Trump in the Oval Office on Friday.

Speaking to the BBC in an interview ahead of a crunch international summit on Ukraine on Sunday, Starmer suggested that “possibly a few others” could be involved in drafting the ceasefire plan. He is set to welcome 18 leaders from Europe and Canada to London on Sunday for talks on Ukraine and bolstering European defence.

Starmer described his initiative as “an important step forward” after the ties between Kyiv and Washington were severely strained during Friday’s public confrontation between the Ukrainian and US presidents

“No one wants this conflict to go on, least of all the Ukrainians,” Starmer told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, adding that he believed Trump was also committed to a “lasting peace” in Ukraine.

Pressed on the details of the potential ceasefire plan that could be accepted by President Trump, Starmer said: “That means a line is agreed – the terms of the deal – and then that that line is defended.

“President Zelenskyy is rightly concerned that if there’s to be a deal, it has to hold. That’s why we’ve talked extensively about what are the guarantees – in what way do we all defend the deal if that deal is made,” Starmer said

“If there is to be a deal, if there is to be a stopping of the fighting, then that agreement has to be defended, because the worst of all outcomes is that there is a temporary pause and then Putin comes again. That has happened in the past, I think there’s a real risk,” Starmer went on.

Starmer sets out three components of potential ceasefire plan

The British prime minister has previously expressed openness to sending British troops as part of a potential peacekeeping contingent to Ukraine, but insists on the US providing security guarantees in the form of a ‘backstop’ to deter Russia from breaking the conditions of a ceasefire.

Trump hasn’t yet committed to such a backstop. The US President said on Thursday following a meeting with Starmer in Washington that he “would not make any security guarantees beyond very much – we’re going to have Europe do that.”

While European allies are not expecting the US to commit to sending American troops on the ground, UK government sources have suggested they are seeking US military cover, including in the air

Starmer reiterated on Sunday that such US backing would be one of three essential components in a potential ceasefire plan.

“I’ve always been clear that that is going to need a US backstop because I don’t think it would be a guarantee without it, I don’t think it would be a deterrent without it, so the two have to go together,” Starmer said.

“So for me the components of a lasting peace are a strong Ukraine to fight back if necessary, to be in a position of strength to negotiate, a European element of security guarantees (…) and a US backstop.”

“That’s a package – all three parts need to be in place, and that’s what I’m working hard to bring together.”

Security guarantees are likely to be at the crux of discussions between European and Canadian leaders during Sunday’s summit in London. Starmer said those guarantees were essential as he believed “there’s a risk that Putin will come again if he’s given the opportunity to do so.”

Starmer has positioned himself as a diplomatic bridge between Europe and the US as efforts to initiate talks over Ukraine’s future intensify.

While several European leaders have rallied around Zelenskyy following Friday’s confrontation in the Oval Office, Starmer had been more cautious, speaking with both Zelenskyy and Trump in the immediate aftermath of their bust-up.

He said on Sunday that he trusted both Zelenskyy and Trump and insisted that the relationship between the US and the UK continues to be the “closest relationship of any two countries in the world.”

Starmer calls for security guarantees by ‘coalition of the willing’

Ahead of talks with over a dozen European leaders later on Sunday, Starmer also threw his weight behind the idea of a “coalition of the willing”, the prospect of like-minded countries moving in tandem to provide security guarantees to Ukraine without being held back by those more sceptical.

The EU’s foreign policy decisions require the unanimous backing of all 27 member states, a requirement which has often bogged down EU decisions in support to Ukraine.

Hungary and Slovakia are currently refusing to back plans to increase support to Ukraine in a summit of EU leaders to be held on Thursday in Brussels. It’s prompted calls for a group of like-minded EU countries to move ahead in a “coalition of the willing.”

Starmer used the same term to call on a group of like-minded countries to go ahead in promising security guarantees to Ukraine.

“We need to be clear what a European security guarantee would look like,” Starmer said. “I do acknowledge (…) that that’s more likely to be in the first instance a coalition of the willing, in other words, we’ve got to find those countries in Europe that are prepared to be more forward-leaning.”

“The UK and France are the most advanced in the thinking on this,” Starmer went on. “This is not an exclusion, the more the better in this, but we need to move to a quicker, more agile way of moving forward and I think that is a coalition of the willing.”