Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to send British peacekeeping troops to Ukraine if needed as he sought to show that European nations are serious about their own defense.
Urging fellow European leaders to respond to demands from US President Donald Trump to shoulder more of the burden for the continent’s defense, Starmer wrote in an opinion piece for Monday’s Telegraph newspaper that “the UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine.”
That means providing Ukraine’s military with ongoing kit and financial assistance, and also “being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary,” Starmer wrote, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg. “We have got to show we are truly serious about our own defense and bearing our own burden.”
The UK is seeking to play a bridging role between Europe and the US after Trump on Wednesday stunned European leaders by announcing that he had agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
“Europe and America must continue to work closely together – and I believe the UK can play a unique role in helping to make this happen,” Starmer wrote. “We are facing a once in a generation moment for the collective security of our continent. This is not only a question about the future of Ukraine. It is existential for Europe as a whole.”
Starmer is expected to join Germany’s Olaf Scholz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and other European leaders in Paris on Monday after French President Emmanuel Macron convened urgent talks on Ukraine and the continent’s wider security.
The meeting in the French capital will include conversations on possible European troop deployments to Ukraine during a ceasefire, the ongoing supply of weapons to Kyiv, what sort of security guarantees Europe can give Ukraine and how they can persuade Trump to agree to US support for those guarantees, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity discussing internal deliberations. They cautioned that the talks are at an early stage and no final decisions have been made.
“While European nations must step up in this moment – and we will – US support will remain critical and a US security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the US can deter Putin from attacking again,” Starmer wrote. He said he would meet Trump in “coming days” to help secure a “strong deal” on Ukraine.
The flurry of activity comes after European powers — and Ukraine itself — faced the prospect of being sidelined in peace talks. With US and Russian officials set to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days, Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg suggested “that’s not going to happen” when asked if Europe would be at the negotiating table.
Starmer said that if Ukraine were excluded from the discussions, it “would accept Putin’s position that Ukraine is not a real nation.”
Still, Secretary of State Marco Rubio left the door open for European involvement in the wider discussions, telling CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday: “Ukraine will have to be involved because they’re the one that were invaded. And the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well and they’ve contributed to this effort.”
The core message from Trump’s administration is that European nations must take more responsibility for their own defense, and the president has said members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization should spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense — far exceeding the 3.4% that his own country spends.
Starmer said European nations must increase defense spending and take on a greater role in NATO. “Peace comes through strength; but the reverse is also true, he wrote. “Weakness leads to war. This is the moment for us all to step up – and the UK will do so.”
With European officials working on a major new package to ramp up military spending, Starmer faces domestic pressure to say when he’ll raise Britain’s defense expenditure to a promised 2.5% of GDP from about 2.3% currently — an increase that would cost about £5 billion ($6.2 billion) a year. Defense chiefs have warned Starmer that even that goal would only see British military capabilities stand still.
Trump’s apparent willingness to pull support from Europe has given Starmer an added imperative to push Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves to find the cash this decade, according to people familiar with matter. There are hopes in parts of the government that the premier is increasingly determined to find the money to increase the defense budget, they said. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds appeared to buttress that on Sunday, telling Sky News that the government and Britons “recognize more will have to be spent on defense.”
While the thrust of Starmer’s message was for Europe to step up to the challenge laid by Trump, there were also some points of apparent difference. Where the US administration last week appeared to rule out a pathway to NATO membership for Ukraine, Starmer wrote: “While NATO membership may take time, we should continue to support Ukraine’s irreversible path to joining the alliance.”
He also drew a parallel with the peace deal negotiated by Trump’s previous administration with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and then delivered by the Democratic government of former President Joe Biden. As US troops pulled out in 2021, Taliban fighters quickly overwhelmed Afghan forces and prompted a chaotic exit. These talks must be different, Starmer said.
“We cannot have another situation like Afghanistan, where the US negotiated directly with the Taliban and cut out the Afghan government,” he wrote. “I feel sure that President Trump will want to avoid this too.”
