UK prepared to send peacekeeping troops, says Starmer

Donald Trump’s former national security adviser has warned against a “dangerous” rush to do a deal with Russia.

HR McMaster urged Trump go to into talks with President Putin from a “position of strength” by not seeming desperate for a deal.

Trump has a “drive towards some kind of an entente or a deal, in this case, as applied to Ukraine, which I think can be a bit dangerous”, McMaster told Sky News.

“Vladimir Putin, I think, has some hope a little bit here, that he’ll be able to manipulate Donald Trump into an agreement that favours Russia.”

McMaster suggested Trump had a “misunderstanding” about Putin’s ultimate aim “to completely subjugate Ukraine as the first step in really shifting the balance in Europe in favour of Russia”.

Sir Keir Starmer may be able to push President Trump towards a tougher position on Russia, the president’s former national security adviser has said.

HR McMaster said the world was hearing Trump “think out loud” about Ukraine, saying that the president “learns conversationally” about what to do.

Recalling his own efforts in 2017 to convince Trump to tighten sanctions on Russia, McMaster said: “I tell the story of laying out for President Trump on a chart, acts of Russian aggression that followed incidents or decisions that portrayed weakness to Putin. And the point that I was making to him is that what provokes Putin is the perception of weakness.”

Trump then agreed to send missiles to Ukraine and McMaster said: “I think the more conversations he has with European leaders, with prime minister Starmer, the better.”

Marco Rubio, US secretary of state, has arrived in Saudi Arabia before planned talks with Russian officials this week.

His plane touched down just before 8.30am GMT. It is not yet known who Rubio will meet, but he did speak on the phone to Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, over the weekend.

The announcement of Britain being ready to put troops on the ground in Ukraine is “premature”, a shadow security minister has said.

Asked whether she agreed that the prime minister was unlikely to send troops and put them in harms way, Alicia Kearns told GB News: “No, I don’t think he is. I think this announcement is slightly premature. We are still in the middle of a hot war. What he should be focused on is defence spending.”

She added: “There is a clear threat to us and we have to make sure we at home are safe and we do need to increase that defence spending, particularly if we are going to send troops abroad.”

Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares said European leaders will discuss how to prevent a peace negotiation on Ukraine ending up rewarding Russian aggression.

“A war of aggression cannot be rewarded, we cannot encourage others to launch wars of aggression,” he said in an interview to the radio station Onda Cero.

Sweden’s foreign minister has said Stockholm is not “ruling out” sending peacekeepers to Ukraine if a peace deal is agreed.

“We must now first negotiate a just and sustainable peace that respects international law, that respects Ukraine and that first and foremost ensures Russia can’t just pull back, build new strength and attack Ukraine or another country in just a few years’ time,” Maria Malmer Stenergard told the Swedish public broadcaster.

“Once we have such a peace established we need to ensure it can be maintained and then our government doesn’t exclude anything,” she added.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is ready to send British troops to Ukraine for peacekeeping duties.

Wes Streeting refused to say how many British troops could be sent to Ukraine.

The health secretary told Times Radio that Britain is “prepared to do whatever it takes to guarantee our collective security and to make sure that not only do we bring an end to the war in Ukraine, but we bring about a lasting peace”.

Asked about what could happen if “whatever it takes” is tens of thousands of troops, Streeting said, “it’s premature to be talking about numbers and to be speculating”.

There is “no greater priority than the security of the nation”, the health secretary has said.

That was Wes Streeting’s response when asked if he was concerned about the possibility of cuts in his department in order to boost defence spending.

“The frontline in Ukraine isn’t just a matter for Ukrainians, it’s the frontline for the whole of Europe including Britain’s national security,” he told Sky News.

Streeting said Ukrainians have been “confronting the imperial, expansionist ambitions” of Putin which are “also a threat to wider European security and Britain’s national security”.

European leaders will meet in Paris today for emergency talks regarding the Ukraine war amid growing tensions with America.

Sir Keir Starmer, President Macron of France, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, are expected to attend.

A representative from Nato is also expected at the meeting in the French capital. It has been organised following announcements by Washington that Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, is on his way to Saudi Arabia today to meet Russian officials.

On the ground in Ukraine, fighting continues. Overnight, Kyiv said that Russia launched 147 drones. Ukraine claimed to have shot down 83 drones and 59 more did not reach their targets. Moscow claimed to have shot down 90 Ukrainian drones and one missile.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his way to Saudi Arabia for talks about the Ukraine war with Russian officials.

Rubio took off from Israel on Monday morning and was joined by Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser, and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East.

After visiting Saudi Arabia, Rubio will also travel to the United Arab Emirates.

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “ready and willing” to commit British troops to Ukraine for peacekeeping purposes.

The prime minister wrote in The Daily Telegraph that the crisis was a “once in a generation moment” and an “existential” question for Europe.

He said the UK was “ready to play a leading role” in Ukraine’s defence and security, adding: “Any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.”