Prime Minister Keir Starmer is reportedly expected to make his first visit to Kiev in the coming weeks
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will soon travel to Kiev to discuss the possibility of an international peacekeeping force, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced.
Several Western leaders have floated the notion of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine after a hypothetical ceasefire with Russia, which US President-elect Donald Trump vowed to broker after his January 20 inauguration.
“This initiative was started by Emmanuel Macron. The British look at it positively, but I will talk in detail with the prime minister about it at our meeting,” Zelensky told reporters late Thursday, after a meeting of Ukraine-supporting countries at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“It will take place. He will be visiting Ukraine, he will have a visit to Ukraine, and we will talk,” Zelensky added. He did not say when Starmer’s trip will take place.
Although the UK prime minister’s office declined to comment, Bloomberg said the visit might happen “in the coming weeks,” citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.
Starmer welcomed Zelensky in London in July, just two weeks after becoming prime minister, and again in October.
Zelensky’s announcement came as Starmer welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron at the Chequers countryside retreat in the UK. The two leaders had dinner, “reiterated their unwavering support” for Ukraine, and discussed the importance of having Kiev “in the strongest possible position in 2025,” according to Starmer’s office.
The Labour leader has been under fire at home over the migrant ‘grooming gangs’ scandal, highlighted recently by X owner Elon Musk, a key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump. Musk has called for Starmer’s ouster for his role in the scandal and its subsequent cover-up and censorship.
Trump has promised to negotiate a swift end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which escalated in February 2022. While he has not shared any details of his proposal, there has been persistent speculation that it would entail troops from EU member countries but not under NATO command.
Macron has previously proposed sending French and other NATO troops to Ukraine in order to help Kiev free up forces for frontline service, but the idea was disavowed by most European members of the US-led bloc.
The US and its allies have sent over $200 billion worth of military and financial aid to Ukraine, while insisting they are not directly involved in the hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the military aid to Kiev as tantamount to the direct participation of NATO in the conflict.
Russia has ruled out any NATO involvement in Ukraine and insists that the conflict can only end with a neutral, demilitarized, and “denazified” government in Kiev that recognizes the new territorial realities and guarantees the rights of ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers.
