UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine after war
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced Sunday that he is willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine to maintain a peace when the Russia-Ukraine war ends.
"The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine," the Labour Prime Minister wrote in The Telegraph. "It also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary."
Starmer noted that the United Kingdom has committed £3 billion (approx. $3.78 billion) per year to support the Ukrainian military until at least 2030.
The announcement comes after a week that saw the Trump administration waver on the terms for its support for Ukraine and shake European allies. Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, suggested Ukraine and other European leaders would have no place at peace negotiations.
"We are facing a once-in-a-generation moment for the collective security of our continent," Starmer wrote. "This is not only a question about the future of Ukraine – it is existential for Europe as a whole."
Starmer is scheduled to join an emergency summit of European leaders in France on Monday to discuss security and Ukraine.
"We have got to show we are truly serious about our own defence and bearing our own burden. We have talked about it for too long," Starmer wrote.
Secretary of State attempts to allay European fears
Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to calm fears ahead caused by other members of the administration ahead of the emergency summit in an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation."
"Ultimately, it will reach a point - if it's real negotiations, and we're not there yet - but if that were to happen, Ukraine will have to be involved because they're the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well," Rubio said.
Reuters reported Sunday that U.S. officials had handed European officials a questionnaire asking, among other things, how many troops they could contribute to enforcing a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump made his first known phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that he agreed to a meeting with the Russian leader in Saudi Arabia. A Ukrainian envoy had not been invited to the meeting and a date has not yet been set.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on the same day that Ukraine would have to concede Crimea, an area of Ukraine that was seized by Russia in 2014 in a prelude to the current conflict, and its aspirations to NATO membership in order to reach a peace agreement.
Hegseth also signaled the administration's willingness to turn away from NATO allies for domestic security concerns.
“The United States faces consequential threats to our homeland. We must — and we are — focusing on security of our own borders,” Hegseth said.
Vice President J.D. Vance further rattled European relations during a visit to Germany, parroting far-right concerns about "censorship" and meeting with the German far-right party AfD leader Alice Weidel while not meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
German courts ruled that the AfD can be classified as a suspected threat to democracy, according to the Guardian.
This story has been updated to correct a misspelling
Contributing: Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Francesa Chambers, Paste BN; Reuters