Keir Starmer is set to head to Berlin on Monday for crucial talks on the future of Ukraine with fellow European leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff.
The emergency summit is the latest attempt by European leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Friedrich Merz, to persuade the US to accept an alternative peace plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Witkoff’s original 28-point plan proposed Ukraine giving up all the territory that Russian president Vladimir Putin has demanded – including parts of the Donbas currently controlled by Kyiv – as well as dramatically reducing the size of Ukraine’s armed forces. It was drawn up by Witkoff and Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, without the involvement of Ukraine or the Europeans.
Witkoff has been accused by Ukraine of being too close to Putin. He visited Russia six times this year, but despite several invitions has yet to travel to Ukraine. During those trips he travelled without his own translator, relying instead on Kremlin officials, and has often repeated Russian talking points.
The alternative European proposal, which has been thrashed out in a series of summits and phone calls over recent days, removes several of the points Ukraine opposed and calls for the US to provide security guarantees. European leaders spoke with Trump on the phone last week but failed to persuade him to back their proposal.
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The talks have been taking place against the backdrop of increased tension between Europe and America in the wake of the release of the new US national security strategy (NSS). The strategy outlined the White House’s belief that Europe is facing “civilisational erasure”. The US, it said, would prioritise “cultivating resistance” inside European nations by throwing its support behind “patriotic European parties”.
By contrast, the NSS failed to criticise Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and suggested that the US saw its role as mediating between Europe and Russia.
Photograph Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images