UK’s Starmer meets Trump at White House amid divide between US, Europe over Ukraine peace deal

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting with President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House hours after Trump told his Cabinet that he wouldn’t provide security guarantees to Ukraine “beyond very much.” 

Trump, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday regarding Ukraine, is expected to sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tomorrow in Washington. 

The meeting between Trump and Starmer will include much discussion about the president’s efforts to bring the conflict to an end through a peaceful resolution, a senior administration official said. They will later hold a joint press conference at 2 p.m. ET.

As Trump was greeting Starmer Thursday, the president was asked if he was confident he could get a peace deal done on Ukraine, to which he replied “We can and we will.”

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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, is greeted by President Donald Trump as he arrives at the White House in Washington, on Thursday, Feb. 27.  (AP/Ben Curtis)

“On issues like Ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal,” Starmer later said alongside Trump in the Oval Office. “And we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it’s a deal that goes down as a historic deal, that nobody breaches. And we’ll work with you, to make sure that absolutely happens.”

Starmer pushed the United States on Wednesday to provide a security “backstop” for any potential European peacekeepers in Ukraine, according to Reuters. 

“I’m absolutely convinced that we need a lasting peace, not a ceasefire, and for that to happen we need security guarantees,” he was quoted as saying. “Precisely what that layers up to, what that looks like, is obviously a subject of intense discussion.” 

Starmer reportedly added that his “concern is if there is a ceasefire without a backstop, it will simply give him [Putin] the opportunity to wait and to come again because his ambition in relation to Ukraine is pretty obvious, I think, for all to see.” 

President Donald Trump stands before British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives at the White House, on Thursday, Feb. 27, in Washington.  (AP/Evan Vucci)

However, Trump said Thursday that “I don’t like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. I like to get things done.”

“We have to make a deal first. Right now, we don’t have a deal,” he added.

Trump also said during a Cabinet meeting Wednesday that “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much, we’re going to have Europe do that, because… Europe is their next-door neighbor. But we’re going to make sure everything goes well.” 

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“I’ve had very good conversations with President Putin. I’ve had very good conversations with President Zelenskyy. And until four weeks ago, nobody had conversations with anybody,” Trump said Wednesday. “It wasn’t even a consideration. Nobody thought you could make peace. I think you can.” 

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with President Donald Trump on Friday in Washington, D.C. (Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance/Curtis Means/Daily Mail/Bloomberg)

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“We’re going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides,” Trump added.