Kremlin statements have contradicted Donald Trump’s claims about European peacekeepers in Ukraine being accepted by Russia. Elsewhere, Keir Starmer announced an increase in defence spending and pledged continued backing for Ukraine. Listen to the latest Trump 100 podcast while you scroll.
Tuesday 25 February 2025 19:24, UK
Security and defence analyst Michael Clarke will be answering your Ukraine war questions live on Wednesday at 1.30pm.
Submit your questions in the box at the top of the page – he’ll answer a selection of the best.
We’ll be streaming the Q&A live on this page.
The UK’s announcement of a boost to defence spending “sets the ground well” for Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to the White House on Thursday, our US correspondent Mark Stone has said.
Speaking to our lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge, Stone described the upcoming meeting as the most important between a UK prime minister and US president since the Second World War.
“The fact Starmer has been able to make this announcement… he effectively said it is because of the Trump presidency that we’ve accelerated the decision that we’ve come to,” Stone said.
He goes on to explain that Trump has essentially “exited NATO without leaving it”.
“He’s opened up so much doubt in everyone in Europe’s minds about whether or not America really had Europe’s back.
“He’s focused their minds, and the consequence is that they are now doing what they needed to do and beginning to spend a lot more.”
Karoline Leavitt is asked if she can assure reporters that the negotiation process for peace in Ukraine “will not be as one-sided as Europeans seem to think it is”.
US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia for talks last week, with Europe and Ukraine demanding a seat at the table in future negotiations.
Leavitt says Trump “knows how to make a deal better than anyone who has ever assumed the office of the American presidency”.
She states Trump has made “significant improvements” in ending the war, and says “he wants to see the bloodshed and the killing stopped”.
“This has been going on for far too long, the president inherited this mess because of the incompetence of the previous administration, and he is committed to fixing it,” she adds.
“He is wholeheartedly committed to striking a peace deal in Russia and Ukraine.”
Karoline Leavitt is now answering a question on the status of Donald Trump’s minerals deal with Ukraine.
Leavitt says there have been no “significant updates” on the deal since Trump spoke to the media yesterday, but she reiterates his position.
“It’s critical that this deal is signed, he expects Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sign a deal,” she says.
“This is to recoup American tax dollars that have been funding Ukraine’s national defence, and it’s also great for the Ukrainian people who have been put through hell because of this war.
“It will create a lasting economic partnership as Ukraine will need to rebuild their country because of this brutal war.”
For context: Ukraine has been facing pressure from the Trump administration to sign a deal for access to its rare minerals.
Trump has said the US military and economic aid in Ukraine has amounted to around $500bn (£396bn), and in return, he wants the US to access Ukraine’s minerals of that value.
A Ukrainian source told Sky News that Zelenskyy is “not ready” to sign the US agreement due to a “number of problematic issues”, with a leaked draft claiming the US had asked for a 50% share of Ukraine’s rare minerals.
Donald Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt is holding a briefing at the White House.
You can watch along in the YouTube stream below.
We will also be providing text updates with any relevant developments on the war in Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed he will be hosting a summit with European leaders this weekend after he returns from his trip to the White House on Thursday.
He said: “I have spoken to President Macron this afternoon on his return to France [from Washington], and I am hosting a number of countries at the weekend for us to continue to discuss how we go forward together as allies in light of the situation that we face.”
Starmer went to Paris to meet the French president and other European leaders at the start of last week for an emergency summit on Ukraine and defence.
Our political editor Beth Rigby asks Sir Keir Starmer why he made the announcement after previously refusing to set out a timeline to increase defence spending to 2.5%.
“It is a moment where we have to fight for peace through the action that we take,” Starmer says.
“We’ve all known that this decision has been coming for three years since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine.”
Starmer says the last few weeks have “accelerated” his thinking on when he needed to make the announcement, adding “I’ll be very clear about that”.
“The conflict in Ukraine is about the sovereignty of Ukraine, and it’s also about security and defence in Europe and our security and defence,” he says.
“The first duty of government is to ensure that its citizens are secure, and that’s why I’m taking that as a matter of duty and responsibility today.”
Sir Keir Starmer says the changing nature of the war in Ukraine has brought the UK’s response into “sharper focus”.
“As the nature of the conflict changes, as it has done in recent weeks, it also brings our response into sharper focus,” he says.
“I believe we must now change our approach to national security so we are ready to meet the challenges of our volatile world.”
He says the UK “can’t hide” after listing the various ways in which Russia has threatened national security, and says Vladimir Putin “only responds to strength”.
“Unless Ukraine is properly protected from Putin, Europe will only become more unstable, and that will hurt us even more,” Starmer adds.
Sir Keir Starmer is holding a news conference after announcing UK defence spending will rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027.
You can watch along in the stream at the top of this live page or in the YouTube stream below.
There will also be text updates on the Politics Hub below, and we will bring you any relevant updates on this live page.
The UK’s decision to boost defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 has been hailed as a “strong step from an enduring partner” by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
In a post on social media site X, Hegseth said he has just had a call with UK Defence Secretary John Healey, in which he confirmed the rise in defence spending.
The move comes as Sir Keir Starmer prepares to head to Washington to meet Donald Trump on Thursday, with the US president calling on NATO allies to move towards spending 5% of national income on defence.
The US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has delayed a trip to the region as diplomatic efforts on the war in Ukraine continue, according to Axios.
Witkoff joined US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz in Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian officials last week.
It follows comments by Donald Trump last night, in which he suggested the war could end “within weeks”.
“It’s time to restore peace and I think we are going to do it,” he said to media while alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Since my return to the White House, we’ve made more progress towards that goal in one month that occurred in the past three years.”
He also added Russia is going “all-out” to end the war, but those comments have been contradicted by a group of analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (see our 3.27pm post).
They say Vladimir Putin currently remains committed to continuing his war, and has “shown no indication that he is rethinking his determination to compel Ukraine to surrender”.
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