UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met US Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian officials at Chevening in Kent on Saturday to discuss peace efforts in Ukraine. The meeting, held at the request of the US, included Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office, and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, alongside European national security advisers.
The talks come ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday. Trump has suggested the war could end with 'some swapping of territories', a comment rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said 'Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers'. A White House official later said Trump was open to a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskyy, but a bilateral meeting with Putin was planned at Russia's request.
Zelenskyy stressed that any peace deal must include Ukraine, stating in a Telegram post: 'Any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace.' He later described the Chevening meeting as constructive, saying Kyiv's arguments were heard and dangers taken into account. Officials from Britain, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, and Poland participated.
In a joint statement, leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland, and the EU Commission declared: 'The path to peace cannot be decided without Ukraine.' They welcomed Trump's efforts to end the war but insisted on a combined approach of diplomacy, support for Ukraine, and pressure on Russia. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Zelenskyy spoke by phone earlier, agreeing to maintain pressure on Putin.
The proposed Trump-Putin summit would be the first meeting between a US president and the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The last such meeting was between Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021.
