A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will fail unless it is backed up by “robust” security guarantees from western powers, the UK prime minister has said.
Keir Starmer, speaking ahead of talks with European leaders in Berlin, told MPs on Monday he was opposed to any agreement that did not include sufficient military guarantees for Ukraine, as Kyiv comes under mounting US pressure to sign up to a Trump-backed plan.
Starmer said: “European history is full of peace agreements that failed and sometimes led to even greater conflict. And that is why it’s really important we attend to this in detail. Putin has shown time and again that he will keep coming back for more if he sees the chance.”
He added: “Peace agreements fail, in my view, predominantly because there aren’t sufficiently robust security guarantees behind them – which is why the French president and I set up the coalition of the willing … to put in place guarantees from the coalition-of-the-willing countries in accordance with and alongside the US.”
In a separate speech on Monday, Blaise Metreweli, the head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, said Vladimir Putin was “dragging out negotiations” over Ukraine, in keeping with the spy agency’s long-standing assessment that the Russian leader was not serious about ending the war, except on very favourable terms to the Kremlin.
She accused Putin of engaging in “historical distortions” while insisting that the UK’s support for Ukraine would be enduring, because “it is fundamental not just to European sovereignty and security but to global stability”.
Starmer was speaking to parliament’s liaison committee hours before he was due to board a flight to Berlin for dinner with the leaders of eight European countries, as well as those of the European Commission, the EU Council and Nato.
The prime minister is one of a handful of western leaders who has offered Volodymyr Zelenskyy advice and support as talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine gather pace.
Starmer hosted the Ukrainian president along with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at Downing Street last week in a coordinated show of support.
Zelenskyy spent Monday in Berlin, where Ukrainian officials have been locked in talks with their US counterparts for two days. He said on Monday that the talks were “not easy” but had been productive.
Over the weekend he offered to drop Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato for the first time in an attempt to show his willingness to reach an agreement. In return Zelenskyy and his European allies are pushing for “article-5-like” security guarantees from Europe and the US, referring to Nato’s founding principle that an attack on one member country should be seen as an attack on all.
Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to defend Ukrainian sovereignty as part of a multinational force. Doing so, however, would require logistical support from Washington, the status of which remains unclear.
European officials have been scrambling to respond to the national security strategy launched by Trump last week, which claimed Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and called for US backing for far-right parties across the continent.
Starmer on Monday reiterated his calls for Europe to spend more on its own defence, arguing: “I will always believe in the Euro-Atlantic security mechanisms, but I do think it is time for European countries to step up, step into the breach on spend, capability, coordination.”
