Ukraine-Russia latest: Starmer asks US to provide security guarantee for Kyiv to stop Russia from attacking again
Sir Keir Starmer has demanded that the Trump administration provide a “backstop” to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again after he attended an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris.
“There must be a US backstop, because a US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again”, Sir Keir said.
Senior European and Nato leaders met at an emergency summit in Paris, with Sir Keir becoming the first to confirm that he would deploy British troops into Ukraine to enforce a peace deal with Russia if necessary.
This comes as hectic talks are expected today in Riyadh by US president Donald Trump’s delegation. The US has arranged bilateral peace talks with Russia, excluding European allies and Ukraine from negotiations that are due to begin in Saudi Arabia this morning.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavroi and Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov arrived in the Saudi capital last night. Mr Ushakov said the talks would be “purely bilateral” and would not include Ukrainian officials.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will travel to Saudi Arabia tomorrow but his trip to the Arab nation was unrelated to the US-Russia talks.
