Ukraine cannot be left “completely toothless” and unable to defend itself, a senior minister has said before President Zelensky visits London for talks on peace proposals.
The Ukrainian leader will meet Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street on Monday along with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor. Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, said Ukraine’s security and self-determination would be “at the heart” of the leaders’ discussions.
Russian missile and drone attacks overnight into Sunday killed at least one person in Ukraine, and caused power and water cuts after US and Ukrainian officials ended three days of talks aimed at ending the war.
At a conference in Qatar on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr said that his father, President Trump, may abandon the Ukraine peace talks if progress is not made
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Zelensky said on Saturday evening that he had a “substantive phone call” with American officials engaged in talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Florida. “Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” he wrote on social media.
Separately, President Trump’s eldest son has said his father may abandon the Ukraine peace process unless progress was made. Speaking at a conference in Qatar, Donald Trump Jr was asked if the president might walk away from the talks, he replied: “I think he may, what’s good about my father and what’s unique about my father is you don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s unpredictable.”
Last month, Starmer urged leaders of the coalition countries to firm up their commitments to a potential peacekeeping force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire. Russia has repeatedly rejected the prospect of allied troops being stationed in Ukraine and continues to demand large swathes of Ukrainian territory in exchange for peace.
Appearing on Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Pat McFadden said that Russia should not be able to dictate Ukraine’s future as an outcome of peace talks
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McFadden told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The principle behind the talks will be for Ukraine to be able to decide its own future.
“This is a really pivotal moment now. Everybody wants the war to come to an end, but they want it to come to an end in a way that gives Ukraine that freedom of choice in the future. So, that means not just an end to the war but also security guarantees for Ukraine in the future, and not a completely toothless organisation which is unable to decide its future.”
He added that any peace deal should not “reward Russian aggression, both in terms of the end state on the battlefield, but perhaps even more importantly in terms of Russia’s ability to dictate Ukraine’s future”.
The UK has consistently pushed for any peace deal to include security guarantees for Ukraine, both from the US and in the form of the British and French-led “coalition of the willing”.
However Zarah Sultana, the former Labour MP who has set up the fledgling Your Party with Jeremy Corbyn, said Starmer was “leading the European hawks into an endless war”.
Asked on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme what she meant when she previously said Ukrainian president Zelensky is not a friend of the working class, Sultana said: “When we look at legislation that has passed through Ukraine that introduces zero-hour contracts, that stops trade unions from having vetoes, that really slashes workers’ terms and conditions, that is what I mean when I say President Zelensky isn’t a friend of the working class.
“That is to say that despite the war that’s happening in Ukraine, we shouldn’t have to sacrifice workers, and it’s important that we recognise what’s happening in Ukraine is an illegal invasion.
“It is indefensible but we have to look at what is happening, and Keir Starmer leading the European hawks into an endless war where the interest of Ukrainian people and the Russian people to end the war isn’t there, it’s simply about arms manufacturers increasing their profits, where this government just wants to sell even more long-range missiles, rather than negotiations being the focus and ending this war.”
Negotiators have acknowledged that any “real progress” will depend “on Russia’s readiness to show serious commitment to long-term peace”.
It comes as British soldiers joined a major exercise on Nato’s border with Russia as Finnish troops prepare to defend their country if their neighbour invades.