Starmer to host Zelenskyy and EU leaders for Ukraine talks

Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for talks in Downing Street on Sunday to discuss support for Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader will visit the UK with the French president and German chancellor after a week of heightened hostilities and Vladimir Putin’s rejection of his proposal of face-to-face talks on Moscow’s war.

The three countries meeting the Ukrainian leader are some of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. The UK and France are leading the “coalition of the willing” initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace process.

A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on Saturday, underscoring Kyiv’s growing ability to hit deep inside Russia. No casualties were immediately reported.

In Ukraine, one person was killed and three wounded overnight into Saturday in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as Russian forces struck three districts nearly 30 times with drones and artillery, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.

Putin on Friday rejected a proposal by Zelensky for face-to-face talks on the four-year-old war, claiming he saw “no point” in a meeting.

Donald Trump said it would be “great” for the two to meet, but his attention has largely been on talks with Iran.

On Wednesday, Starmer condemned Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine in a phone call with Zelensky.

Russian strikes on Ukraine earlier this week killed one person and injured 15 more, including three children, all while Kyiv has repelled hundreds of long-range drones launched by its enemy.

Ukraine used long-range drones to strike an oil terminal in the Russian Baltic port city of St Petersburg.

Last month, Starmer hailed a “generational uplift” in the UK’s defence relationship with Poland as he and his Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, signed a new security pact.

The UK prime minister said: “There’s no greater challenge for either of our countries than the challenge of Russian aggression, and we see that not just in Ukraine itself, but beyond Ukraine, impacting on our own countries.

“So, that’s the context in which we sign what is actually a generational uplift in the relationship on security and defence between our two countries.”