The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance, met Ukrainian and European partners at Chevening in Kent on Saturday to discuss the path to peace in Ukraine. The meeting took place at Washington’s request, ahead of a planned summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin next Friday in Alaska.
President Trump suggested an end to the war might involve “some swapping of territories”, a comment rejected by Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers”. A White House official said Trump was open to a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy, but a bilateral meeting with Putin was planned at the Russian leader’s request.
On Saturday evening, Lammy posted on X that the meeting included Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister, and European national security advisers. “The UK’s support for Ukraine remains ironclad as we continue working towards a just and lasting peace,” he said.
Zelenskyy described the meeting as “constructive”, with Kyiv’s arguments heard and dangers taken into account. Officials from Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland took part. Later, the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, along with the EU Commission president, issued a joint statement declaring that “the path to peace cannot be decided without Ukraine”.
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke by phone with Zelenskyy. A No 10 spokesperson said both leaders welcomed President Trump’s desire to end the war and agreed on the need to keep pressure on Putin. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, suggested there could be a “freeze” in the conflict. If the Trump-Putin summit proceeds, it would be the first US-Russian presidential meeting since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
