Speaking at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted there can be no discussion “about Ukraine, without Ukraine” at the table for negotiations, according to a report out of the UK.
Along with French President Immanuel Macron, Starmer is set to meet next week with US President Donald Trump to discuss upcoming negotiations for a “Peace Plan” the US leader is negotiating to end Russia’s eleven-year war against Ukraine, now three years into the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.
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The prime minister said he talked with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday and assured the Ukrainian leader he had the UK’s “ironclad support for Ukraine” and would be “progressing important discussions” about Kyiv’s security.
“Mark my words – what I have seen only makes me more determined to stand up for Ukraine.”
In his speech to the Scottish Labour conference, as reported by ITV News, Starmer said:
“I’ve seen first-hand the devastation Putin has caused.
“Just a few weeks ago, I was in Kyiv. I met soldiers in the burn unit of a hospital who fought on the front line of freedom.
“I spoke to children who are growing up under constant bombardment, some of them – primary school-age – have lost their parents to the conflict.
“I’ve been to Bucha, the town where Russian soldiers handcuffed civilians and shot them in the head in cold blood. Trust me, you don’t forget a place like that.”
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According to the report, Starmer also said he spoke to survivors who had to gather up the bodies of loved ones and “wheel them into a mass grave using shopping trolleys,” saying: “Mark my words – what I have seen only makes me more determined to stand up for Ukraine.”
“Nobody wants the bloodshed to continue, least of all the Ukrainians,” said Starmer.
“But after everything that they have suffered, after everything they have fought for, there can be no discussion about Ukraine without Ukraine, and the people of Ukraine must have a long-term, secure future.”
Downing Street reportedly said that in Starmer’s call with Zelensky on Saturday, the prime minister said he would be “progressing important discussions” about Kyiv’s security on his visit to Washington.
Starmer’s meeting at the White House comes just days after Trump’s verbally abusive attack on Zelensky using the US president’s social media platform.
The US president called Zelensky a “dictator without an election” on Wednesday and blamed the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion on the Ukrainian leader. He later said Starmer and Macron “haven’t done anything” to end the war.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington on Saturday, Trump said he thought, “We’re pretty close to a deal.”
“We better be close to a deal because that has been a horrible situation,” said Trump.
The White House spokesperson on Saturday said Trump thought he could end the war “this week” while suggesting a Ukrainian mineral rights deal may be part of his calculations to reach an agreement.
Zelensky said his country would not accept negotiations between Moscow and Washington in Riyadh last week since Kyiv was excluded from the discussions between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
According to the report, a Number 10 Downing spokesperson said that in the call with Zelensky, Starmer had reiterated the UK’s “ironclad support for Ukraine and commitment to securing a just and enduring peace to bring an end to Russia’s illegal war.”
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