The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, received the French President, Emmanuel Macron, at Downing Street on Monday; German Chancellor Friederich Merz; and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The British government has been very secretive in defining the content of a meeting which will focus on negotiations around the peace plan presented by Washington, “and on the next steps” which must take place.
The three countries which contribute the most to the NATO budget, after the United States, want a more relevant role for Europe in the final decision on the future of Ukraine, and have expressed their reservations on the first 28-point project presented by the administration of Donald Trump in November, which proposed an outcome of the conflict largely favorable to Moscow.
Merz, Starmer and Macron wanted to appear in front of the cameras alongside Zelensky to express a resounding message of support for Ukraine. “We all know that the destiny of your country is the destiny of Europe,” said the German chancellor, the toughest of the three leaders when it comes to assessing the current state of negotiations. “I’m skeptical about some of the details we’re seeing in the documents coming from the U.S. side, but we have to talk about it, and that’s why we’re here,” Merz said.
The November proposal, very favorable to Putin’s demands, was followed by another developed in Geneva by delegations from the United States, Ukraine and Europe, in which terms more favorable to the interests of kyiv were proposed, which again irritated the government of Vladimir Putin and led to the blocking of negotiations.
The subsequent meeting between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin himself, which took place in Moscow and lasted five hours, produced no significant progress.
Zelensky arrives at Downing Street after three days of negotiations in Miami between Witkoff and Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov. “The primary mission of the Ukrainian team was to obtain from the Americans comprehensive information about the conversation in Moscow, as well as all the projects discussed, in order to discuss them with the Ukrainian president,” Umerov explained on the social network X.
The details of the plan proposed in Miami have not been made public, but the American president again expressed this Sunday his “disappointment” with Zelensky, whom he accuses of not having read the project. “Their people love it,” Trump said. The Ukrainian president limited himself to responding that he needed to hear information from his negotiators face to face and in person.
“In this meeting we must achieve a union between Europe and Ukraine, but also between Ukraine and the United States, because there are things that we cannot manage without the Americans and others for which Europe is needed. We must make important decisions,” Zelensky said in Downing Street.
The two most complicated aspects to negotiate would be possible territorial concessions (Russia claims Donbass, east of Ukraine, and “New Russia”)., (term invented by the Kremlin to designate the region which would include areas of southern Ukraine, up to the Odessa province) and future security guarantees, to prevent a new attack from Moscow.
“There are different visions from the United States, Russia and Ukraine. We do not have a unified vision regarding Donbass,” Zelensky told Bloomberg a few hours before his arrival at Downing Street. The Ukrainian president also said his government was seeking a separate deal on security guarantees, which he hopes Washington will be part of.
Prime Minister Starmer, who once again rolled out the red carpet in London to welcome Zelensky, also highlighted this aspect. “It is important to emphasize that this conflict has been going on for almost four years, that Russia is the aggressor country and therefore if there is to be a ceasefire it must be fair,” he told the PA news agency. “Putin does not respect agreements that are not backed by inflexible security guarantees, so we will focus on these aspects,” the British leader said.
Starmer brought together the two European and Ukrainian leaders at a crucial time, when the Trump government is once again showing signs of willingness to disengage from the conflict. The national security strategy published by Washington last week, which harshly criticizes Europe and less so Russia, has caused a new wave of cold water in transatlantic relations. To the point that part of this Monday’s meeting in London focuses on the essential decision that European leaders must make, between trying once again to attract Washington or starting to support Ukraine alone.
“We have good cards in hand. We financed Ukraine to equip itself and it is resisting, while the Russian economy is starting to suffer from our sanctions and those of the United States,” Macron declared. “I think that the main issue now is the convergence of our common positions, between Europeans, Ukrainians and Americans, to finalize these peace negotiations and enter a new phase where Ukraine finds itself in the best possible conditions,” summarized the French president.
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