Volodymyr Zelenskyy has met the leaders of the UK, France and Germany in London amid heavy pressure from the Trump administration for Ukraine to cede territory it holds to bring the war to an end quickly.
The talks on Monday followed several days of negotiations between US and Ukrainian officials, which ended on Saturday without an apparent breakthrough and were characterised by the Ukrainian president as “constructive, although not easy”.
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, held a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy in Downing Street, after the two men earlier met with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. Starmer insisted that he “won’t be putting pressure” on Zelenskyy to accept a peace settlement, while Merz expressed “scepticism” over the US proposal.
Trump doubled down on his position on Sunday night, suggesting Zelenskyy “hasn’t yet read the [US] proposal” and claiming without evidence that “his people love it”. However, recent polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology suggests a majority of Ukrainians remain opposed to territorial concessions.
The British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, is expected in Washington on Monday, where she will meet her US counterpart, Marco Rubio. “The UK and US will reaffirm their commitment to reaching a peace deal in Ukraine,” the Foreign Office said.
