Keir Starmer’s balancing act: PM to join EU leaders for emergency Ukraine summit today but hopes to remain bloc’s ‘bridge’ to USA after Zelensky’s team was frozen out of peace talks in global ‘tectonic shift’

Sir Keir Starmer will join European leaders at a crisis summit over Ukraine today as Donald Trump’s team prepares for peace talks with Russia.

The Prime Minister will travel to Paris for the emergency meeting organised by French president Emmanuel Macron after to Mr Trump’s shock move to begin negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

Sir Keir will then aim to act as a ‘bridge’ between Europe and the White House after the bloc was left out of the peace talks.

The summit today will also be attended by the heads of Nato, the EU, Germany and Poland among others. Sir Keir will then travel to Washington DC later this month to report the discussions to Mr Trump directly.

A defence source told the Mail last night: ‘It’s a big moment. It’s an opportunity to develop a clear and united position on how we secure any future peace in Ukraine.’

The insider claimed the US is ‘open to ideas’ and so Sir Keir needs to ‘present them with a unified pitch on what Europe can offer’.

‘As you saw from the last few days with [Defense Secretary] John Healey and [Foreign Secretary] David Lammy out across Europe, the UK is playing an important leadership role already. We will be a central part of those conversations with the US, as their closest security ally.’

One of Sir Keir’s Cabinet ministers believes he can act as a ‘bridge’ between Europe and the US as the President demands Nato members spend more on their defence.

Sir Keir Starmer with Emmanuel Macron in November. The PM will travel to an emergency summit organised by the French president following Donald Trump’s move to begin negotiations with Putin without Europe or Ukraine

Defence Secretary John Healey shakes hands with Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense during talks at NATO headquarters 

Mr Trump’s policy advisers flew to Saudi Arabia last night following the President’s dramatic phone call with Putin about ending the war. Pictured: The pair meeting in 2018

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC yesterday [sun]: ‘I believe we in the UK can play a part. As that bridge between the US and Europe as we adjust to this new era, and it certainly is a new era.’

He admitted the delicate role of middleman for Sir Keir will not be easy but insisted: ‘There is definitely from the new US administration, a view towards Europe, and there’s a slightly different view towards ourselves in the UK.’

But while he insisted that a peace settlement will require ‘the involvement of European nations and the Ukrainians themselves’, neither are invited to the talks due to start between the US and Russia this week.

Mr Trump’s top foreign policy advisers flew into Saudi Arabia last night following his dramatic phone call with Putin about ending the three-year war.

Despite pleas that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy be given a seat at the table, after he stressed that no one can make a deal without his agreement, the US confirmed last night that he will not be involved directly in the negotiations.

White House Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News yesterday that he and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz were both going to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Witkoff said he hopes for ‘good progress’. But asked why Ukraine was not invited, he said it was ‘part of the talks’, insisting: ‘I have to push back on any notion that they aren’t being consulted. They absolutely are.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also be at the first meeting and is expected to hold direct talks with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov but cautioned it would not bring an immediate end to the fighting.

Mr Rubio told CBS: ‘The Ukrainians are obviously fighting this war. It’s their country and they’re on the front lines. So one meeting isn’t going to solve it. But I want to reiterate the President made clear he wants to end this war, and if opportunities present themselves to further that, we’re going to take them if they present themselves.’

However a former Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO accused Mr Trump of switching sides to align the US with Russia.

The US confirmed that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy would not be directly involved in the negotiations, despite calls for him to be given a seat at the table

A pair of traditional Russian wooden dolls Matryoshka depicting Trump and Putin on sale at a souvenir shop in Moscow

Stefanie Babst told Times Radio: ‘He is siding with the pariah state, with a war criminal, and he has been a Putin fan all along. We can certainly no longer rely on the transatlantic relationship as we have come to know it for the past 75 years.’

And former Prime Minister Sir John Major said :‘If America is not to stand behind its allies in the way the world has previously seen, then we are moving into a wholly different and in my view, rather more dangerous world.’

He said Mr Trump’s call to Putin was made with ‘no consultation with Ukraine or anyone else’.

‘Yet consider what happens if Russia can claim a win: China is going to notice that, and so will the world, and so will every tin-pot dictator around the world,’ Sir John said.

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