British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of the U.K.’s support for Ukraine a day before a critical U.S.-Russia summit is set to take place in Alaska.
The two embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments. Around an hour later, Starmer walked Zelenskyy back to his waiting car, and the two leaders shared another embrace as the Ukrainian president departed.
Zelenskyy’s trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of several European countries.
Those leaders said Trump had assured them he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Anchorage.
Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions reached could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.
Yet some of those leaders, like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday’s video conference with Trump as constructive. Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin does not agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday’s meeting.
Territorial integrity
The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska will start at 11:30 a.m. Local time. Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations. Talks will then continue over “a working breakfast,” Ushakov said.
Putin on Thursday held a meeting with top government officials on the upcoming summit. In a short video released by the Kremlin, he said that Trump’s administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”
Putin also suggested agreements could be reached with the U.S. “In the area of control over strategic offensive weapons at the next stage.”
Starmer on Wednesday said the Alaska summit would be “hugely important,” and could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, and warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.
During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said, adding that robust security guarantees must accompany any ceasefire to ensure that “Ukraine can defend its territorial integrity.”
Macron: Trump willing to share in security guarantees
Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting in Ukraine. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit to engaging their military personnel.
Countries in the “coalition of the willing,” which include France and the U.K., have been trying for months to secure U.S. Security backing should it be required. Following Wednesday’s virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”
“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.
Trump did not reference any U.S. Commitments to providing security guarantees during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.
Some Ukrainians skeptical
With another high-level meeting on their country’s future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism that any breakthroughs would be achieved during Friday’s U.S.-Russia summit.
Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made on ending the 3 1/2-year-old war.
“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”
Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said Ukraine’s priority now should be saving the lives of its military servicepeople, even at the expense of making territorial concessions.
“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless. Therefore, some principles can be disregarded here.”
Russia and Ukraine trade strikes
Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community injured a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.
In the southern Kherson region, Russian artillery fire struck the village of Molodizhne on Thursday morning, injuring a 16-year-old boy, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.
In Russia, an oil refinery in the Volgograd region caught fire after a Ukrainian drone attack overnight, according to local governor Andrei Bocharov. The refinery, one of the biggest producers of petroleum products in southern Russia, has been a frequent target of drone attacks, according to Russian independent news site Meduza.
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Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed.