The aim of Thursday’s Downing Street meeting between Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy could not have been clearer. It was to send a strong visual political message to President Trump on the eve of his Alaska talks with Vladimir Putin. Neither the prime minister nor Ukraine’s president spoke publicly. The Ukraine leader was greeted with a hug and a handshake. The two men then talked in private by a vase of sunflowers, Ukraine’s national flower.
So much is at stake in Ukraine and so great is the urgency that European leaders have moved fast and determinedly this week – not something one can often say. The aim is to remind Mr Trump that Europe stands with Ukraine against Russia. The solidarity has been well choreographed – and tightly scripted. No leader has said anything that might provoke Mr Trump. Whether the US president will take any notice, let alone serious notice, is something else. That will only become clear in and after Alaska.
