Trump says US will not put up with Zelensky for long

The claim seems to be based on a report released last week by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea).

It found that EU member states bought €21.9 billion of fossil fuels in the third year of Russia’s full-scale war. In 2024, Europe allocated €18.7 billion for financial aid to Ukraine, the report stated.

Zelensky has said countries must work together to “bring us closer to real security guarantees” after meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states.

“For us, unity with all partners is crucial to end the war as soon as possible and ensure a reliable and lasting peace. Ukraine, Europe, the United States — only together can we restore security for all our people, and this is really possible,” he wrote on X.

Sir Keir Starmer yesterday apologised to the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after they were not invited to a summit on European defence in London.

President Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine was hoping to be able to rely on US support in securing peace.

“It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible,” Zelensky wrote on X.

“We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope for US support on the path to peace. Peace is needed as soon as possible.”

A British former Nato commander has said “we cannot in any way count on America as an ally” in Ukraine.

General Sir Richard Shirreff told Times Radio that a ceasefire would only come when “Russia is forced into it”.

“Russia has already made it clear that it is not going to back down on any of its aims,” which are the “annexation of four Ukranian provinces and the permanent neutralisation of the rest of the country”, he said.

But he insisted that even without US support, the situation in Ukraine was not hopeless because of Russia’s depleted military capability.

He said Russia was “really, really strapped” for military hardware, and had resorted to using “civilian vans, golf buggies, and even donkeys” to carry out the war.

“And if you then take into account the Russian economy, and there are many who will have come on Times Radio who say that the Russian economy is like a leaky ship and is only kept afloat by desperate measures. If we can give Ukraine enough to survive and not to blink, Russia ultimately will blink,” he said.

Europe has let Putin know that “it won’t take peace at any price”, a senior Ukrainian MP has said, as parliamentarians in Kyiv responded positively to diplomatic efforts in London.

Solomiia Bobrovska, an Ukrainian opposition MP and member of the parliamentary committee on national security and intelligence, told The Times: “Finally, Europe has accepted the challenge of the Ukraine war without the US.

“The worst scenario for us is peace at any price. In London, this was the main and most crucial message: Europe won’t take peace at any price.

“But the question is who will take leadership in this. It’s a question we’ve been asking for months, even before Trump was elected.”

Others also voiced their support for Sunday’s talks between Europe’s leaders. Oleksii Goncharenko, an opposition MP, said: “This is a good start”.

A Ukrainian MP has said that a “united Europe” is the only chance for peace as the world is “spinning out of control”.

Lesia Vasylenko told Times Radio that the countries Ukraine thought were “strategic friends, are now changing position”.

She added: “Not just with political statements, but actually some action is required, the action in the form of increased defence and security spending and increased defence and security production. That’s the only way to get out of the situation we are in right now.”

President Trump has attacked his Ukrainian counterpart for suggesting that the end of the war “is still very, very far away”.

President Zelensky made his statement in London on Sunday.

“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social website today. He also criticised European leaders.

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US — probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”

The relationship between Trump and Zelensky is on the rocks after Friday’s row in the Oval Office. On Sunday Zelensky appeared to try and repair some of the damage.

“I think our relationship [with the US] will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship. I believe that Ukraine has a strong enough partnership with the United States of America.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said that he agrees it would be “utter folly” for Britain to send troops into Ukraine without security guarantees from the US.

Andrew Murrison, a Tory MP, said: “Would the prime minister agree with me that it would be utter folly if the UK or France or Norway or Canada sent their sons and daughters into harms way without all necessary security guarantees from the US?”

Starmer responded: “I do agree with him, and that’s why I’m working so hard on security guarantees that are worthy of the name. That is a forward leaning European element, but with a US backstop, which is vital if it’s to act as a guarantee.”

Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at Nigel Farage for criticising the Ukrainian president, accusing him of “fawning” over President Putin.

Farage, the leader of Reform UK, asked in the Commons if Ukraine’s decision to sign an economic deal with the US was enough to deter Putin.

Starmer responded: “Can I just remind him Russia is the aggressor, Zelensky is a war leader whose country has been invaded, and we should all be supporting him, not fawning over of Putin.”

As Europe reels from the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the US and Ukraine, its leaders sprung into action over the weekend.

Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer and France’s President Macron announced a “coalition of the willing” to be involved in the “heavy lifting” needed to bring peace to Ukraine. But can it be done without consensus between Trump and Zelensky, or even without any US support?

The Times’s Diplomatic Editor, Roger Boyes, analyses if peace is salvageable from the new low of Friday’s Oval Office row.

The European Union will provide Moldova with €60 million (£50 million) to spend on defence this year, the European Council’s president said today, to boost the capabilities of the small agricultural country that neighbours Ukraine.

During a visit to the Moldovan capital, António Costa said that €37 millions had already been provided to the former Soviet republic via the European peace facility, making it the second largest beneficiary after Ukraine.

The European Council brings together the leaders of the EU’s 27 member states.

Moldova, which wants to join the bloc by 2030, is already seeking closer ties with the EU, particularly on security and defence.

Addressing a joint news conference with President Sandu of Moldova, Costa said the €60 million was “to ensure peace”.

Starmer has said that western allies “must keep the military aid to Ukraine flowing” and increase economic pressure on Russia.

Trump is considering cutting military aid to Ukraine as he seeks to bring an end to the conflict with Russia.

However, Starmer said: “We must keep the military aid to Ukraine flowing, keep increasing the economic pressure on Russia, and to that end, alongside our partnership on air defence, we are doubling down on military aid. Already this year, we have taken our support to record levels, but on Saturday, we also agreed a new £2.2 billion loan for Ukraine, backed not by the British taxpayer, but by the profits from frozen Russian assets.”

Kemi Badenoch has said that “it is right” that Starmer is working with Europe and the US to bring peace to Ukraine.

She said she wanted to see details of what the deployment of troops in Ukraine would look like. “I ask him to work with us so there can be effective scrutiny,” she said.

Badenoch said she agreed that a “coalition of the willing” must be formed to guarantee the security of any peace deal.

She suggested that frozen Russian assets in Europe should be given to Ukraine. “At times like this it is so important we stand together to defend shared values,” she said.

Sir Keir Starmer has said that Ukraine’s allies cannot accept “a weak deal” like the Minsk accords, signed in 2015 after Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

The prime minister said he was willing to deploy “boots on the ground and planes in the air” to secure peace as he pointed to the failure of previous peace deals.

He said that for Ukrainians the war did not begin three years ago, and said the invasion of 2022 was “merely the latest and most brutal escalation”.

He said President Putin’s decision to invade in 2022 demonstrated the “calibre of his word”.

Sir Keir Starmer has told the Commons that “nobody in this House” wanted to see the clash between President Zelensky and President Trump in the Oval Office, but added: “We must strengthen our relationship with America.”

He said that the US “are and always will be indispensable”, adding that the UK would never choose between “either side of the Atlantic”.

“This week has shown with total clarity that the US is vital in securing the peace that we all want to see in Ukraine,” he said.

He welcomed the prospect of a new trade deal with Washington and reasserted his support for Article 5 of Nato, under which member countries supports another if attacked.

He said that nobody should doubt “for a second” Trump’s sincerity when he says he wants a peace deal.

Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser, has voiced further doubts about whether the White House is willing to deal with President Zelensky in the future.

Waltz said today that Zelensky’s posturing during Friday’s Oval Office meeting “put up in the air” whether the US administration will be able to deal with him in talks.

“Is he ready? Personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?” Waltz said on Fox News. “And can he and will he make the compromises necessary?”

Russian military advances in Ukraine have slowed for the third consecutive month.

In February Moscow captured 389 sq km, having taken 431 sq km in January, 476 sq km in December and a high of 725 sq km in November, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

On Sunday, Ukrainian forces took back the village of Pischane, southwest of the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk area, military officials said. Ukrainian platoons have also counterattacked around the neighbouring village of Kotlyne.

Putin has been willing to countenance significant human losses for the sake of incremental territory gains by committing large numbers of poorly trained, poorly equipped soldiers to the front lines — a tactic known as the “meat wave”.

“Russian losses in massive efforts that have failed to break Ukrainian lines or even drive them back very far are exacerbating challenges that Russia will face in sustaining the war effort through 2025 and 2026,” the ISW said.

Ukraine has returned 33 civilians displaced from the western Kursk region to Russia, Moscow officials said on Monday.

Hundreds of Russians have been missing from Ukrainian-seized territory since the shock offensive last August, with their families voicing concern and sometimes anger to the Russian authorities as they seek their relatives’ return.

Moscow said last week that it had struck a deal with Kyiv to secure the return of some civilians who had crossed into Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region after the offensive began.

“With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross and mediation by Belarus, 33 residents of the Kursk region have been evacuated to Russia from Ukraine,” Russia’s human rights ombudswoman, Tatyana Moskalkova, said on Telegram.

“Most are elderly, but there are also four children. Many have severe injuries and illnesses,” she added.

Tesla sales have plunged in Scandinavia and France as the electric car maker faces a brand loyalty test caused by the leading role played by its chief executive Elon Musk in the Trump administration.

Some 613 new Teslas were registered in Sweden last month, down 42 per cent year-on-year, while registrations in Norway and Denmark each fell by 48 per cent to 917 and 509 cars respectively, despite rising demand for electric vehicles more widely.

Tesla registrations in France also declined by 45 per cent over the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year.

Last year, the company’s Model Y was the most sold electric vehicle in France and the tenth most sold car overall, while this year, it sits in 27th.

Musk’s entry into politics has triggered “Tesla Takedown” demonstrations outside dealerships in the United States and calls for boycotts elsewhere.

In Norway, where almost all new cars are fully electric, Tesla’s share of overall car sales has slipped to 8.8 per cent in the year to date, down from a market-leading 18.9 per cent in 2024.

President Trump’s treatment of President Zelensky leaves the Western alliance in its gravest crisis since 1945.

The British government should continue to address the Trump administration with superhuman restraint, but concede no point of principle and recognise that mere subservience will get us nothing.

Trump respects only strength. Compassion is not in his lexicon. We are being called on to hold our nerve, to sustain a sense of order, calm and commitment to reason, when none of these things is on offer from Washington.

Read in full: Stay firm in face of Donald Trump’s divide and rule

President Trump has taken to his Truth Social social media site to berate political opponents and the media for the coverage of his flare-up in the White House with President Zelensky.

“The only president who gave none of Ukraine’s land to Putin’s Russia is President Donald J Trump,” he wrote. “Remember that when the weak and ineffective Democrats criticise, and the Fake News gladly puts out anything they say!”

Trump has consistently claimed that the Russians would not have invaded if he had remained in the Oval Office.

Sir Keir Starmer and John Healey, the defence secretary, met representatives of small and medium-sized companies in the defence sector, apprentices and students at a careers fair in Downing Street on Monday.

Starmer said the defence sector would provide the “next generation of good, secure, well-paid jobs” as the government announced it would set a target for spending money with small defence businesses. It comes after last week’s announcement that defence spending would increase from 2.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent of GDP by 2027.

The prime minister said increased defence spending would boost investment in small firms across the UK, with as many as 12,000 firms potentially benefiting.

“This isn’t just about security for Britain, it’s about security for working people as well,” Starmer said. “The next generation of good, secure, well-paid jobs — and the pride and purpose of knowing your work keeps the nation safe.”

Sir Keir Starmer is now positioning himself as the bridge between Ukraine and the US as he attempts to salvage a potential peace deal. In Whitehall officials are planning for all eventualities.

The view in government is simple — Zelensky needs to do whatever it takes to reopen the conversation with Trump. The tacit advice to Zelensky is that he needs to “play the game”.

Starmer’s approach to Trump has been to show him respect, flatter him at every turn and not to confront him directly. But will this be enough to bring the US back to the table, will Europe have to step up — or will Ukraine have to go it alone?

Read our analysis in full: Ukraine peace deal: what are Sir Keir Starmer’s options?.

The White House clash between President Trump and President Zelensky was a “manufactured escalation”, Friedrich Merz, Germany’s next chancellor, has claimed.

“It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelensky, but obviously a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz told a news conference in Hamburg on Monday.

Merz, who is seeking to form a coalition after his Christian Democratic Union party won a snap election last month, said that Europe was now under pressure to act quickly.

“We must now show that we are in a position to act independently in Europe,” he added.

Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, has ordered US Cyber Command to pause its offensive operations against Russia, US media outlets have reported.

The directive was reportedly made before President Zelensky’s meeting with President Trump and JD Vance, the US vice-president, in the Oval Office on Friday.

No public explanation has been given for the instruction and it is not clear how long the moratorium will last, as the US defence department has declined to comment.

According to The Record, the cybersecurity publication which first reported the news, it is possible that thousands of personnel could be affected by Hegseth’s order. Operations aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s digital defences are likely to be among those affected.

Former officials told the New York Times that it was common for leaders to order a pause in military operations during sensitive diplomatic negotiations, in order to avoid derailing them.

President Trump is expected to discuss cancelling military aid to Ukraine when he meets with key advisers later today.

The New York Times reports that Trump will consider the possible suspension or complete cancellation of military aid to Ukraine, including weapons pledged by the former Biden administration.

An official said Trump would meet with top national security aides, including Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, to review and potentially act on a range of policy options for Ukraine.

Among the issues to be considered include the suspension or cancellation of US military aid to Ukraine, including the latest shipments of ammunition and equipment authorised by the Biden administration.

It follows Friday’s disastrous meeting in the Oval Office between President Zelensky of Ukraine, Trump and JD Vance, the US vice-president.

As London and the European Union looked to ramp up military spending amid uncertainty over US commitment to Ukraine and Nato, share prices in European defence companies rose sharply.

BAE Systems surged 14 per cent, enabling the FTSE 100 index to reach another record high after a recent rally.

The French defence group Thales also gained 14 per cent and Germany’s Rheinmetall rallied 12 per cent in late morning trade.

“Europe is rallying round Ukraine and it’s hard to see defence stocks not enjoying years of orders,” said Neil Wilson, an analyst at TipRanks, a financial technology company.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, warned on Sunday that “we urgently have to rearm Europe” and “prepare for the worst”.

Ariane 6, Europe’s new rocket, is set to undertake its first commercial mission on Monday as Europe seeks to secure independent access to space.

The high-profile mission comes as Europe is attempting to reduce its reliance on the United States for security while the European space industry struggles to remain competitive with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The rocket is scheduled to blast off from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 1.24pm local time (16.24pm GMT) on Monday. The launcher will carry a French military satellite, which will be placed in orbit at an altitude of about 800km (500 miles).

The CSO-3 satellite is expected to strengthen France’s military autonomy and improve its army’s intelligence capabilities. Europe has not been able to use Russian Soyuz rockets since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The £2.5 billion generated from the sale of Chelsea FC is still locked up three years on, despite it being committed to humanitarian aid in Ukraine, a legal adviser has said.

Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the club in 2022 after being placed under sanctions by the UK government because of his links to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Abramovich pledged to divert all proceeds to a foundation to benefit victims of the war.

However Lyra Nightingale, a legal adviser at Redress — an organisation helping deliver justice and reparations for survivors of torture — said that the funds remained unused for no clear reason.

“We don’t know why it’s stuck. There’s a real lack of transparency and over three years of campaigning for that money to go where the government said it would go, that has still not happened,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The House of Lords European affairs committee has previously reported the cash was frozen in a UK bank account amid disagreement about where it should be spent.

Lech Walesa, the former Polish president, has likened Donald Trump’s treatment of President Zelensky in the White House to “security service interrogations”.

“We watched … with fear and distaste,” read a letter posted on the Nobel peace prize winner’s social media. The letter was signed by other former Polish political prisoners.

“Prosecutors and judges at the behest of the all-powerful communist political police also explained to us that they hold all the cards and we hold none,” read the letter. “They demanded us to stop our business, arguing that thousands of innocent people suffer because of us. They deprived us of our freedoms and civil rights because we refused to co-operate with the government and our gratitude. We are shocked that … Zelensky [was] treated in the same way.”

Walesa was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1983 for his work for free trade unions in Poland during the communist era.

Nice but not enough. That is the upshot of Britain’s emergency European summit. Unlike the French effort two weeks ago, it was not a fiasco (Edward Lucas writes).

The main glitch was the failure to invite Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The countries that have been right about Russia all along.

But at least the leaders of the Baltic states got briefed first. Sir Keir Starmer outlined to them his four-step peace plan, implicitly countering President Trump’s attempt to deal directly with Russia over the heads of Ukrainians and America’s erstwhile European allies.

The outline looks promising. A key element is more money and weapons for Ukraine, giving it a military edge and causing more headaches for President Putin. If only Europeans had been decisive and generous early in the war, it would already be over.

Less clear is how much a “coalition of the willing” comprising European and other countries can and will contribute to defending Ukraine after any ceasefire. Without the overwhelmingly important combat power of the United States, other countries lack the military muscle to do this properly.

Read Lucas’s commentary in full.

France’s foreign minister has said a plan for a one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine would test Moscow’s commitment to ending the war.

On Monday, Jean-Noël Barrot said it would “prove the goodwill of Vladimir Putin if he commits to a truce. And it’s then that real peace negotiations would start. We want a solid peace and a durable peace.”

Barrot told France Inter radio that it was “a way of verifying that Russia is willing to end this war”.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said after the London talks on Sunday that France and Britain were proposing a one-month truce in Ukraine “in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure” although not, initially at least, covering ground fighting. The UK government has distanced itself from the remarks.

President Zelensky said continued attacks from Russia on Ukraine this week showed Putin did not want peace.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian president called on “greater collective strength” from countries around the world to put pressure on Russia to stop its attacks.

Zelensky said Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine showed it was not ready for serious negotiations. “Ukraine is fighting for the normal and safe life it deserves, for a just and reliable peace,” he said.

Zelensky said “those who seek negotiations do not deliberately strike civilians with ballistic missiles”. He added: “To force Russia to stop its attacks, we need greater collective strength from the world.”

The United Nations human rights chief has expressed deep concern about a “fundamental shift in direction” being taken by the United States under President Trump.

“We have enjoyed bipartisan support from the US on human rights over many decades … I am now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally,” said Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights.

“Policies intended to protect people from discrimination are now labelled as discriminatory … divisive rhetoric is being used to distort, deceive and polarise. This is generating fear and anxiety among many,” he said in an address in Geneva, although he did not mention Trump by name.

Russia plans to recruit 343,000 new soldiers in 2025 to make up for losses in their ranks, a senior Ukraine intelligence chief has said.

Vadym Skibitskyi, the deputy head of the HUR foreign intelligence service, added that the Kremlin’s plans could change as casualties mounted. “For example last year there was a goal of 375-385,000 conscripts, then plans changed to 430,000.”

About 80 per cent of those mobilised last year were to replace battlefield losses, Skibitskyi said in an interview with RBK, a Ukrainian news agency.

Russia were also planning to build capacity to launch 500 shaded drones toward Ukraine each evening, he said. It is a number that could pose a significant challenge to Ukraine’s air defences.

Skibitskyi added that Russia’s primary focus on the battlefield was to keep advancing in the direction of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region but that offensives in the south, in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, are also expected.

The Kremlin has said that President Zelensky “demonstrated a complete lack of diplomatic ability, to put it mildly”, in his White House clash with US President Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance on Friday.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, also called it “quite an unprecedented event”. He added: “It is very important that someone forces Zelensky himself to change his position.

“Someone has to make Zelensky want peace. If the Europeans can do it, they should be honoured and praised.”

Russia has hit a military training ground in the Dnipro region, leading to multiple casualties, the new head of Ukraine’s ground forces has confirmed.

Mykhailo Drapatyi ordered an independent investigation into Saturday’s strike, with the help of counter-intelligence, to understand how the facility was targeted.

“The tragedy at the training facility is an awful consequence of an enemy strike,” he wrote on Telegram on Monday morning.

“War demands quick decisions, responsibilities and new standards of security, otherwise we will lose more than we have [to lose].”

Drapatyi did not confirm the number of casualties but referred to “the fallen” in plural. Social media reports from the region reported an influx of wounded to local hospitals.

President Trump has warned that less time should be spent “worrying about Putin” hours after European leaders convened in London to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Writing in the early hours of Monday morning on Truth Social, his social media platform, the American president said more time should be spent “worrying about migrant rape gangs, drug lords, murderers and people from mental institutions entering our country”.

He added that this would ensure “we don’t end up like Europe”.

His comments followed the summit at Lancaster House in London on Sunday in which Sir Keir Starmer urged Europe’s leaders to commit to joining a “coalition of the willing”.

An oil refinery 1,400km (870 miles) inside Russia caught fire overnight, local authorities reported.

Russian channels on the messaging app Telegram said the fire followed an explosion at the Ufimsky oil refinery in the city of Ufa, and that about 100 firefighters were involved in extinguishing it.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the fire. Since spring 2024, Ukraine has been carrying out a campaign of attacks on Russian oil refineries to disrupt the Russian wartime economy, and in retaliation for repeated attacks on Ukraine.

On February 26, Ukraine’s military said it had attacked the Tuapse oil refinery, also one of Russia’s largest, on the Black Sea coast, with 40 explosions at the site.

The world can rely on President Trump to help end the war in Ukraine, the British government has insisted.

Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, said that Trump “sees the UK as a key ally. He said that he will have the UK’s back, and in the press conference at the White House alongside the prime minister, he said that he backed article five of the Nato treaty”, guaranteeing to come to the aid of allies.

Britain is attempting to persuade Trump to commit the US to underwriting a peace deal in Ukraine. Pollard said: “A lasting, enduring peace is in everyone’s interest, including the United States.”

Asked if the UK could rely on Trump to stick to a deal, Pollard told BBC Breakfast: “Yes, we can rely on Donald Trump and our US partners to create this. We have a deep defence relationship with the US.”

Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, has distanced the government from Lord Mandelson’s suggestion that Ukraine should commit to a ceasefire before Russia.

Asked by the BBC if that was the government position, Pollard said: “No. It’s certainly right that Ukrainians want peace. I think of all the people on our continent that want peace, the Ukrainians want it the most, but we’re still in discussions [about] diplomatic engagement with our European, US and Ukrainian friends as to the shape of that deal.”

He added: “It’s certainly right that the war could stop tomorrow, if President Putin stopped his illegal and unprovoked aggression.”

Sir Keir Starmer has been invited to a meeting of the European Council on Thursday to discuss plans for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.

The EU extended the invitation over the weekend after European leaders attended a summit at Lancaster House in London.

Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the French president, are attempting to build a “coalition of the willing” among allies, which would see deployment of European troops in Ukraine.

It is not clear whether Starmer will attend the summit yet.

Nigel Farage has criticised President Zelensky for not wearing a suit to his meeting at the White House, saying he showed “no respect” to Donald Trump.

After criticism from Trump’s allies about Zelensky’s decision to wear military dress during a disastrous Oval Office meeting, the Reform UK leader insisted: “If I turned up at the White House, I’d make sure I was wearing a suit and my shoes were clean, absolutely.”

He suggested that Zelensky should have expected a negative reaction after he chose to “bowl in and show no respect to a man who we all know is incredibly old-fashioned about this stuff”.

Although Sir Winston Churchill wore battle fatigues to the White House during the Second World War, Farage told LBC that “he wasn’t dealing with President Trump”, advising Zelensky: “There are times to wear it. There are times not to, perhaps.”

Nigel Farage has argued that “good is going to come” of President Zelensky’s acrimonious row with President Trump and JD Vance, the US vice-president.

The Reform UK leader said that Ukraine was “heading towards peace” as he criticised Zelensky for being “rude” to Trump.

“Sure, Vance and Trump bit back, but in diplomatic terms, I think Zelensky played it very badly,” he told LBC. “Before Zelensky even left the White House, he was willing to go back in and sign the minerals deal.”

Although saying he was not defending the behaviour of Trump and Vance, Farage backed their push for a peace deal. “Wars either end with a deal or they end in annihilation,” he said.

“We’re heading towards peace. It’s a good thing. I wouldn’t expect a guest to be rude to me on my own house. Absolutely not. I would expect a guest to treat me with respect.”

Britain has distanced itself from a proposal by President Macron of France for an initial one-month truce between Russia and Ukraine.

Macron said after a summit in London on Sunday that he and Sir Keir Starmer had discussed a limited, one-month ceasefire “in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure”.

He said that the initial truce would be easier to monitor than a full-scale ceasefire involving British and French peacekeeping forces on the ground in Ukraine.

A senior government source said that it was “not a UK plan” and that there were various options on the table.

Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, said it was crucial that the United States was involved as a “backstop” in any UK-France proposal for a month-long truce in the Ukraine war.

As European leaders attempted to broker their own peace deal after the US walked away from negotiations last week, Pollard told Times Radio all European nations needed to boost their defence funding to ensure the peace was “lasting and durable”.

He added: “That will require not only European nations to step up their military support today — because with all the talk of peace we shouldn’t forget there’s a war happening right at this moment with Ukrainians dying protecting their country from invasion — but we should also look at how a deal can be put together and how it can be reinforced by our US friends.

“Without a US backstop the fear is that any short peace may become a pause that will simply allow Putin time to rearm and then to reinvade.”

President Trump’s state visit to Britain should not be postponed because of his acrimonious public spat with President Zelensky, the government has said.

Opposition MPs have called for the Palace to delay a planned visit by Trump after talks with Ukraine broke down in acrimony on Friday. However, Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, rejected this idea when asked by LBC if the visit should be postponed.

“The state visit invitation has been made by the King, and I agree with it, as does the government,” Pollard said.

“There has been a historic moment in the US. This is the first time that there has been a non-consecutive US president winning an election since the 19th century, but we enjoy a really deep and strong relationship with our American friends, and we should not be afraid of reinforcing that and welcoming him to the United Kingdom.”

Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, said it was “up to the Ukrainian people” to decide whether President Zelensky stayed as Ukrainian leader.

Although Trump allies in the United States are pushing for Zelensky to be replaced as part of a peace deal with Russia, he has been supported by European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer.

Pollard brushed aside suggestions by Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser, that Zelensky needed to go.

“President Zelensky is a democratically elected leader and it’s for the Ukrainian people to decide who their president is.”

After the claim by JD Vance, the US vice-president, that he had been insufficiently grateful for US support, Zelensky once again stressed his nation’s gratitude.

“Of course, we understand the importance of America, and we are grateful for all the support we have received from the United States,” he said. “There hasn’t been a single day when we haven’t felt grateful.”

On his return journey to Ukraine last night, President Zelensky reiterated the importance of security guarantees in any future peace agreement.

“As a result of these days, there is clear support from Europe,” he said in a belated nightly address. “Everyone is united on the main point: for peace to be real, real security guarantees are needed.

“And this is the position of all of our Europe — of the entire continent. The United Kingdom, the European Union, Norway, Turkey.”

Sir Keir Starmer will flesh out his strategy for Europe to end the war in Ukraine today as he defends his plan for a “coalition of the willing” to police a peace deal.

The prime minister is expected to take questions from MPs as he attempts to convince other European leaders to make clear commitments to joining a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine. After a summit in London yesterday, Britain and France are drawing up a plan for a peace deal that will bind in President Trump to offering guarantees to Ukraine.

However, he faces key questions about the shape of such a deal, the nature of a possible troop commitment from Britain and which other countries are willing to join. The future of President Zelensky is also being discussed after allies of Trump suggested he would have to step down following an extraordinary public row in the White House last week.