Military planning for Ukraine peace moves to ‘operational phase’, says Starmer

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said military planning to protect a potential Ukraine ceasefire is moving to an “operational phase” after a virtual meeting with 29 other world leaders.

Military leaders will gather on Thursday in the UK “to put strong and robust plans in place to swing in behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security”, Sir Keir said.

The meeting follows Ukraine agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire after talks with the US. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agrees with the idea, but set a number of pre-conditions for peace.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined Saturday’s meeting, said “active pressure is needed, not just talks”.

“The world must understand that Russia is the only obstacle preventing peace,” he said.

“The path to peace must begin unconditionally. If Russia doesn’t want this, then strong pressure must be applied until they do. Moscow understands one language,” Zelensky added.

He urged European countries to produce their own weapons as soon as possible and to talk to the US and its President Donald Trump to reach a deal more quickly through “full sanctions, strong pressure, and forcing Russia to make peace”.

In a speech after the video call Sir Keir said “the world needs actions…not empty words and conditions”.

In a statement, he said the “Kremlin’s dithering and delay” over the ceasefire proposal and its continued attacks on Ukraine “run entirely counter to President Putin’s stated desire for peace”.

Leaders agreed on Saturday that if Putin refused an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” they would need to “ratchet up pressure…to convince him to come to the negotiating table”, Sir Keir said.

“To deliver this, we will accelerate our military support, tighten our sanctions on Russia’s revenues, and continue to explore all lawful routes to ensure that Russia pays for the damage it has done to Ukraine,” the statement read.

Putin said on Thursday he supported the idea of a ceasefire, but added “there are nuances” and asked a list of questions about details, including whether a ceasefire would allow Ukraine to rearm and who would police it.

Participants in Saturday’s call included Nato, the European Union, nearly two dozen European countries, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Military chiefs will meet this week to move forward on “practical plans” for how their militaries can support Ukraine, Sir Keir said.

“We will build up Ukraine’s own defences and armed forces, and be ready to deploy as a ‘coalition of the willing’ in the event of a peace deal, to help secure Ukraine on the land, at sea, and in the sky,” his statement read.

Sir Keir introduced the idea of a “coalition of the willing” to defend a ceasefire earlier this month, and on Saturday said the coalition had grown and includes backing from Japan and others.

The prime minister has previously said he is “ready and willing” to put UK troops in Ukraine to help guarantee its security as part of a peace deal. He has called on other European countries to commit to concrete security guarantees, and said a US “backstop” is needed.

In a news conference after the summit, Zelensky said there was a need for some form of “boots on the ground” after the ceasefire, although he admitted that some were “sceptical”.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg after the summit that it is “still too early” to talk about putting troops on the ground as part of any security guarantee.

Stubb said Finland was willing to be part of efforts to defend a peace deal, but said: “It is too early to talk about boots on the ground because we don’t have a ceasefire, we don’t have a peace process. Once we have a clear plan, we start doing the commitments.”

He said there was “anywhere from zero to 50 different ways they can help out, boots on the ground is only one way”.

Thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.