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Zelensky says Ukraine will not take part in US-Russia talks this week in Saudi Arabia
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Sir Keir Starmer is attending an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris, after they were sidelined in US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Kyiv will not accept any peace deal brokered by Donald Trump and Mr Putin which excludes Ukraine, as senior US and Russian officials gear up for their first direct talks since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Despite Mr Zelensky announcing that he will travel to Riyadh on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president warned: “Ukraine will not take part [in the talks]. Ukraine did not know anything about it … Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as ones that have no result.”
As the situation rapidly develops, senior European and Nato leaders met at an emergency summit in Paris, with Sir Keir Starmer becoming the first to confirm that he would deploy British troops into Ukraine to enforce a peace deal with Russia if necessary.
With Sir Keir pointing to a “generational security challenge” facing the continent, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also warned that Europe’s security “is at a turning point” and a “surge in defence” is urgently needed.
Sir Keir Starmer has been warned his plans to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine may force Labour into breaking a manifesto commitment on tax and spending.
The prime minister has announced he is prepared to send British troops to defend the country as part of any peace deal, vowing to “play a leading role” in keeping it safe from Russian aggression.
But top military figures have told The Independent any peacekeeping force would require a major uplift in defence spending, above the shift from 2.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent of UK GDP promised by Sir Keir.
And a top economist said that any significant rise in the defence budget would be almost impossible while sticking to the letter of Labour’s general election manifesto.
Our political correspondents Archie Mitchell and Millie Cooke report:
Meeting the pressures of an ageing population on the NHS while ramping up defence expenditure would be an ‘epochal challenge’, top economist warns
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Riyadh, according to Saudi media.
Mr Rubio’s first visit to Riyadh comes as he prepares to meet with a high-level Russian delegation for talks aimed at finding a path to end the war in Ukraine.
Keith Kellogg, US president Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, has told reporters at Nato’s headquarters in Brussels that no one will impose a peace deal on Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – and that he and the people of Ukraine would make that call.
A trip to Ukraine is still being finalised, Mr Kellogg said, adding that he would meet with Mr Zelensky.
Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov has said that Moscow and Washington have yet to agree on how to embark on Ukraine peace talks as the US has not yet appointed a chief negotiator to talk to Russia.
Mr Ushakov and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are due to take part in bilateral talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday after Mr Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone last week, shocking American’s European allies.
In comments broadcast on Russian state TV, Mr Ushakov said the Russian delegation was approaching the discussions with a “business-like” attitude and that its brief was clear.
The aim of the meeting is “to discuss the restoration of normal relations [with the US], to discuss the beginning of possible negotiations on Ukraine, and to discuss prospects for contacts at the highest level,” Mr Ushakov told Channel One.
“Now the question is about agreeing on how to start negotiations on Ukraine because the American side hasn’t appointed a chief negotiator to conduct business with us,” he said.
Mr Ushakov added that Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief, might join the delegation to discuss any economic questions that might arise.
In his latest piece for Independent Voices, historian Mark Almond writes:
Since the Munich Security Conference broke up in disarray, Keir Starmer has been in crisis-management mode. The prime minister has been trying to get transatlantic minds focused back on Russia’s war in Ukraine, rather than the war of words between Washington and Europe.
By making a firm offer of British troops to patrol a ceasefire line, Starmer hopes to mollify Donald Trump’s dismissive attitude to underperforming Nato allies and put Britain at the heart of any Allied peace mission. The big question for us is whether our armed forces are numerous and well equipped enough to provide a serious contingent to any peacekeeping force along the ceasefire line.
Starmer might want to charm Trump back into the Nato corral, but he has no obvious policy for dealing with Vladimir Putin – apart from repeating the mantras of British backing for Ukraine’s war effort.
Britain’s record as a peacekeeper in recent years has been poor. Remember the confident predictions that the army would be able to carry out its peacekeeping role in Afghanistan’s Helman province “without a shot being fired”!
Those worst-case scenarios shouldn’t veto action – but refusing to plan with them in mind is an invitation to disaster or at least, as in Afghanistan, humiliating retreat.
Read the full article here:
By volunteering to put British troops on the ground to help guarantee Ukraine’s future security, Keir Starmer has stepped into a minefield, says Mark Almond
Sir Keir Starmer is among European leaders now being greeted by French president Emmanuel Macron in Paris, as they gather for an emergency meeting on Ukraine.
A French presidency official said Mr Macron has spoken with US president Donald Trump ahead of the last-minute meeting, which was called after it emerged that Europe would be excluded from talks in Saudi Arabia between US and Russian officials this week.
Talks between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday will aim to determine what is possible to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce has said.
Ms Bruce told reporters in Riyadh that the meeting, involving secretary of state Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, was a step to determine if the Russians are serious about talks toward peace.
“This is a follow-up on that initial conversation between Putin and President Trump about perhaps if that first step is even possible, what the interests are, if this can be managed,” Ms Bruce said.
Belgian finance minister Vincent Van Peteghem has expressed support for the idea put forward by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen to “make room” for defence investments.
“We are in an extraordinary situation, so we also need crisis solutions for that and definitely one of the possibilities there is the opening made by Ursula von der Leyen and the commission to also … make room for defence investments within the European budgetary rules,” he told reporters.
“We are very supportive to that idea. Of course we need to look how we are going to do it, but next to that we also need to look at other options like the common European finance instruments or for example … strengthening the position of the EIB [European Investment Bank] in that kind of investments in the European defence industry.”
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