Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are set to hold talks on how to support Ukraine against Russia following Donald Trump’s election win.
The leaders will speak on Monday in Paris to discuss whether US President Joe Biden can be convinced to give the war-torn country permission to use Storm Shadow missiles in their defence against Russia, The Telegraph reports.
The newspaper revealed that there are high hopes in London that Biden will give permission to Kyiv to use the missiles – a request Ukraine has made for months.
It comes after the US president prevented Ukraine from using the British Storm Shadows at targets inside Russia over fears of retaliatory attacks on Western military bases.
US intelligence long believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would respond to such attacks by ordering counter-assaults on US and European military bases, while also stepping up sabotage efforts on Western soil.
Keir Starmer is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday to discuss whether US President Joe Biden can be convinced to give Ukraine permission to use Storm Shadow missiles
The US president prevented Ukraine from using the British Storm Shadows at targets inside Russia over fears Putin would carry out retaliatory attacks on Western military bases
The use of Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine has been widely debated by leaders for months
In September, Starmer vowed he would press Biden to grant Ukraine permission to use the missiles when the pair met at the UN General Assembly.
The UK Prime Minister said he firmly believed the US and UK should move as a coalition on the issue.
At the upcoming talks in Paris between Starmer and Macron, the impact of the incoming Trump presidency on the conflict in the Middle East and the potential of a trade war with Europe are also expected to be discussed.
World leaders around the globe are anticipating how drastically Trump intends to change US policy on Ukraine following his presidential victory last week.
Trump issued a stern warning to Putin on Thursday in their first phone call since the Republican won the presidency.
Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of ‘Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe’, according to the Washington Post.
Sources also told the newspaper that Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss ‘the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon’.
Starmer has pledged to work closely with Trump, despite cabinet ministers including David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, criticising the president-elect in the past.
But since Trump’s victory, Biden has still attempted to secure US support for Ukraine.
On Thursday, the White House said the president will continue ‘surging’ humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine using funds already authorised by Congress.
However, a recent report claimed Trump’s transition office is considering a proposal that would seek to freeze the conflict in Ukraine with an ‘800-mile demilitarised zone’.
FILE – President Donald Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, July 7, 2017
Britain, France and Germany have already vowed to support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and Zelensky is adamantly against relinquishing territory to Vladimir Putin
Trump advised Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of ‘Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe’, according to the Washington Post
There are high hopes in London that Biden will give permission to Kyiv to use the Storm Shadow missiles – a request Ukraine has made for months
That is unlikely to be welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European partners who are adamant that Kyiv should not surrender territory to the Kremlin, and remains unsubstantiated by US officials.
Trump has famously said that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have started had he been president and claimed he could bring the conflict to an abrupt halt – without ever revealing his plans for doing so.
A recent Wall Street Journal report citing three sources ‘close to the president-elect’ claimed that Trump’s transition office is considering one proposal that would prevent Kyiv from joining NATO for at least 20 years in exchange for lucrative arms deals.
In the meantime, the conflict would be halted by the implementation of a large demilitarised zone (DMZ) that would effectively freeze the fighting in place and force Kyiv to relinquish up to 20 per cent of its territory as part of an ‘800-mile DMZ’.
But the sources offered no insight into how such a buffer zone between Russia’s border and unoccupied Ukraine would be monitored or managed, other than to say it would not be staffed by American peacekeepers.
‘We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European… and we are not paying for it,’ one source is quoted as saying.
Britain, France and Germany have already vowed to support Ukraine ‘for as long as it takes’ and Zelensky is adamantly against relinquishing territory to Vladimir Putin.
However, many analysts have warned that Trump is indeed likely to reduce US’ military aid to Ukraine and force Kyiv’s European partners to shoulder a huge burden to maintain an adequate supply of arms.
On Monday, Starmer will also meet with Michel Barnier, the new French prime minister, who was the European Union’s Brexit negotiator.
The UK PM hopes to negotiate a defence and security pact with the EU in the new year, another topic that is expected to be discussed with Macron.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk