UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was prepared to deploy troops to Ukraine if needed, hours before European leaders meet in Paris on Monday to address Washington’s shock policy shift on the war.
US President Donald Trump sidelined Kyiv and its European backers last week by calling his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to talk about beginning negotiations to end the conflict.
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With Trump saying he could meet Putin “very soon”, European leaders are hastening to Paris for top-level talks on the continent’s security.
Describing a “once-in-a-generation moment”, Starmer said he was willing to put “our own troops on the ground if necessary”.
“Any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country,” he wrote in the Daily Telegraph late Sunday.
Trump has said he believes Putin genuinely wants to stop fighting in Ukraine, while his administration has warned its NATO allies Europe will no longer be its top security priority.
US defence chief Pete Hegseth also appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory lost since 2014.
