Allies of Ukraine rallied around its defiant wartime leader on Saturday as they pushed to revise a suspect peace proposal touted by the United States.
European leaders met in South Africa to review their options after US president Donald Trump set Kyiv a deadline of next Thursday to agree to terms seen as appeasing some of Russia’s most hardline demands.
Sir Keir Starmer spoke with Trump late on Saturday after expressing how leaders were concerned that the current deal would not give Ukraine the means to defend itself, requiring a cap on the military and no Nato membership or peacekeepers.
The prime minister said earlier in the day that allies had agreed that the 28-point plan contains “elements” that are essential to a lasting peace, but added that the proposal still needs “additional work”.
Trump offered allies some hope of salvaging a viable peace deal, telling reporters on Saturday that the peace plan was not his final offer.
A Ukrainian delegation, bolstered by representatives from France, Germany and the UK, is now preparing for direct talks with Washington in Geneva on Sunday to go through the plan in detail.
UK National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell is understood to have left the G20 summit early to head to Switzerland.
Sir Keir said he expected to be in a better position after Sunday’s meeting. He agreed that an armistice should be signed as soon as possible, but amplified Ukraine’s concerns that any peace must be “just and lasting”.
The prime minister insisted that he was in touch with Trump “fairly regularly”, though European leaders were apparently shut out of Washington’s plans that were quietly drawn up with the Kremlin.
French president Emmanuel Macron said that the peace plan contained ideas that were “familiar, whether they were shared or not”.
He praised the ambition to find peace, but said the current deal was merely a “basis for work that needs to be revisited”.
Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is willing to work with the US on “their vision” for peace, while also reiterating the need for security guarantees, scarcely mentioned in Trump’s text.
He assured the public via social media on Saturday that Ukraine’s representatives know how to “defend Ukraine’s national interests”.
Zelensky said later that he had spoken to Sir Keir about the diplomatic work around the peace process, and that the “vast majority” of European leaders were ready to help.
