This post was originally published on this site.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to Downing Street once again, but Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be keen to make this meeting more than just a photo op.
On Monday the PM will welcome not only the Ukrainian president, but also E3 allies France and Germany to discuss the state of the war in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will join Sir Keir in showing solidarity and support for Ukraine and its leader, but it’s the update on the peace negotiations that will be the main focus of the meet up.
The four leaders are said to be set to not only discuss those talks between Ukraine, the US and Russia, but also to talk about next steps if a deal were to be reached and what that might look like.
Read more:
Ukraine has become Europe’s war – so why doesn’t it act like it?
Inside a secret underground military base in eastern Ukraine
Ahead of the discussions, Sir Keir spoke with the Dutch leader Dick Schoof where both leaders agreed Ukraine’s defence still needs international support, and that Ukraine’s security is vital to European security.
But while Russia’s war machine shows no signs of abating, a warm welcome and kind words won’t be enough to satisfy the embattled Ukrainian president at a time when Russian drone and missile attacks continue to bombard Kyiv.
Mr Zelenskyy held a call on Saturday with US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“The American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions,” Mr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address. “The conversation was constructive, although not easy.”
Meanwhile, Mr Trump’s outgoing Ukraine envoy has said a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine is “really close”.
Keith Kellogg, who is due to step down in January, told the Reagan National Defence Forum that efforts to resolve the conflict were in “the last 10 metres”, which he said were always the hardest.
Mr Kellogg pinpointed the future of the Donbas and Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as the two main outstanding issues.
But Russia has signalled that “radical changes” are needed to the US-Ukraine peace plan before it is acceptable to Moscow.
Yuri Ushakov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide, was quoted by Russian media as saying the US would have to “make serious, I would say, radical changes to their papers” on Ukraine.
