LONDON – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday gave Volodymyr Zelensky a warm welcome in London, a day after the Ukrainian leader’s clash with US President Donald Trump.
And ahead of Sunday’s summit in London to discuss how to support Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invading forces, Starmer reiterated his support for Kyiv.
“In partnership with our allies, we must intensify our preparations for the European element of security guarantees alongside continued discussions with the United States,” he said in a statement issued late Saturday.
“Now is the time for us to unite in order to guarantee the best outcome for Ukraine, protect European security, and secure our collective future,” he added.
Hours earlier, Ukraine and the UK unveiled a £2.26 billion ($2.84 billion) loan agreement to support Ukraine’s defence capabilities, to be paid back with the profits of immobilised sovereign Russian assets.
“The funds will be directed toward weapons production in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X.
“This is true justice — the one who started the war must be the one to pay.”
Supporters cheered as Zelensky’s convoy swept into Downing Street, where he was embraced by Starmer and posed for photographs before heading inside the British leader’s home.
“You’re very, very welcome here in Downing Street,” Starmer told Zelensky.
“I want to thank you, the people of the United Kingdom, for such big support from the very beginning of this war,” Zelensky responded.
He is due to meet King Charles III on Sunday.
The leaders met behind closed doors for around 75 minutes, and embraced again as Starmer escorted Zelensky to his car.
– ‘A new age of infamy’ –
Earlier Saturday Zelensky had stressed that Trump’s support was still “crucial” for Ukraine despite their row the previous day.
The clash was a further shock to Kyiv’s European allies, still adjusting to Washington’s new stance on the war.
On Friday as cameras in the Oval Office rolled, Trump berated Zelensky for not being “ready” for peace with Russia, triggering alarm across Europe.
“Yesterday evening underlined that a new age of infamy has begun,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Starmer, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron were among several other European leaders who reiterated their support for Kyiv after the row.
In an interview with the BBC, NATO chief Mark Rutte said he had told Zelensky he had to “find a way” to restore his relationship with Trump.
Russian politicians were delighted, however.
Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev called Zelensky an “insolent pig” who had received “a proper slap down in the Oval Office”.
Although Zelensky left the White House without having signed the deal on Kyiv’s rare minerals, he insisted he was still ready to sign it as “the first step toward security guarantees”.
“It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do,” Zelensky posted on X.
Zelensky will be at Sunday’s emergency talks in London with Kyiv’s European backers — a meeting that will also be attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Starmer said he would meet Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Sunday at Downing Street, before the main summit. In Rome, her office said late Saturday that she had spoken with Trump by phone to discuss the London gathering.
Shouting match
Trump stunned many in Europe when he reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a deal on Ukraine, which Moscow invaded three years ago.
The Republican’s sudden shift — sidelining Kyiv and Europe while pursuing rapprochement with Putin — has rattled the transatlantic NATO alliance.
Those concerns were only exacerbated by Friday’s White House shouting match.
During the televised clash, Trump and Vice President JD Vance angrily accused Zelensky of not being “thankful” and refusing to accept their proposed truce terms.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump said.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the Oval Office uproar as “a grotesque and disrespectful scene”.
He added: “I think that Zelensky was humiliated, I think that in Trump’s mind Zelensky deserved it, I think that the European Union was harmed by Zelensky’s speech.”
EU ‘independence’ from US
Trump has alarmed Kyiv and European allies with his abrupt U-turn in US policy, casting himself as a mediator between Putin and Zelensky and refusing to condemn the Russian invasion.
He said in the Oval Office that he had “spoken on numerous occasions” to Putin — more than has been publicly reported.
With fears growing over whether the United States will continue to support NATO, Sunday’s gathering in the UK will also address the need for Europe to increase defence cooperation.
France’s Macron has said he is ready to “open the discussion” on a possible future European nuclear deterrent.
“We have a shield, they don’t,” he said in an interview with French newspapers appearing Sunday. “And they can no longer depend on the American nuclear deterrent.”
France and Britain are the only Western European countries with a nuclear arsenal.
Germany’s likely next leader, Friedrich Merz, also stressed the need for the continent to move quickly to “achieve independence” from the United States on defence matters.
But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — the closest ally of Trump and the Kremlin in the European Union — vowed to oppose any EU-wide agreement on the conflict.
“I am convinced that the European Union — following the example of the United States — should enter into direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Orban wrote in a letter.
