Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz in London on Sunday for talks focused on scaling up Ukraine's air defences. The meeting came after Russia launched hypersonic Oreshnik missiles at Ukraine and a drone strike damaged a spent nuclear fuel storage facility near the Chornobyl plant.
Downing Street said the leaders discussed “the urgent need to scale up the production of interceptors and co-develop anti-ballistic missile and deep strike capabilities”. They condemned Russia’s large-scale attacks and called on President Vladimir Putin to agree “an immediate and complete ceasefire” with the current line of contact as a starting point for negotiations.
After the main session, Starmer and Zelenskyy continued talks for half an hour before posing for photographs outside No 10. The meeting of the so-called E3 group – the UK, France and Germany – follows a week of heightened hostilities and Putin’s rejection of Zelenskyy’s offer of face-to-face talks.
Zelenskyy told Sky News that Ukraine would not “silently die” and vowed to respond, adding that the talks would focus on air defence cooperation “for the security of all of Europe”. He is due to meet King Charles on Monday. The Ukrainian leader thanked allies for “helping us strengthen the protection of life and increase pressure on Russia”.
The talks followed Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on targets inside Russia, including an oil terminal and naval port in St Petersburg. Putin, speaking at the city’s economic forum, said his war goals were unchanged and there was “no point” in peace negotiations. Zelenskyy described Putin’s response as “weak” and said deep strikes would continue.
