Ukraine-Russia war latest: Starmer warns Putin could reinvade Ukraine unless US provides security guarantees
Sir Keir Starmer will push a reluctant Donald Trump to provide a US “backstop” to prevent Vladimir Putin launching a fresh assault on Ukraine after any peace deal.
The UK prime minister is prepared to commit British troops to a peacekeeping mission but believes that US promises are vital to “deter Putin from coming again”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Washington to sign a deal on rare earth minerals on Friday.
The US will get “a lot of money” back from Ukraine under the deal, Donald Trump says but refuses to provide minimal security guarantees to Kyiv in return.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” the US president told reporters, “we’re going to have Europe do that.”
Mr Zelensky says a framework economic deal with the US is ready but security guarantees Kyiv views as vital remain to be decided.
Russia earlier contradicted Mr Trump by saying it strongly opposed European peacekeeping forces in Ukraine, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claiming that it was a “deceit aimed at fuelling the conflict”.
