Starmer to host Zelensky talks as west seeks to seize moment

Europe’s leaders meet in London today to ratchet up pressure on a Russia weakened by four years of war.

Keir Starmer will host Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and the leaders of Germany and France for pivotal talks as Ukraine seeks to turn a gruelling stalemate into battlefield momentum.

Russia is “in a state of military, economic and strategic failure”, the Élysée Palace said in a statement after Zelensky taunted Vladimir Putin in an open letter and launched two long-range drone attacks on St Petersburg.

The attacks left large areas of the city shrouded in smoke close to a conference centre where Putin was hosting the annual St Petersburg economic forum – once a showpiece of Russia’s growing economic strength, this year a tense reflection of its deepening anxieties.

Attendees spoke of the war as the elephant in the room – scarcely addressed directly but the cause of sharply rising prices, taxes and interest rates, and of a projected $26bn overspend this year on defence.

Zelensky, whose forces have for two successive months taken more territory from Russia than they have lost, goaded Putin in his letter, writing: “You will not have enough money or political capital to keep buying the loyalty of Russians the way you have for the past 26 years. And we will do everything we can to ensure the world helps bring that moment closer.”

Last Tuesday Russia targeted Kyiv with a wave of more than 600 drones and missiles in retribution for a Ukrainian attack on occupied Luhansk that left 21 dead. In his letter, Zelensky also proposed a face-to-face meeting with Putin to end the war, which he said has left the Kremlin “fully dependent on China for the first time in Russia’s history”.

Today’s London meeting, aimed at finding ways to strengthen Ukraine’s war effort, follows approval of a €90bn European loan to Kyiv that had been vetoed by Hungary’s former leader, Viktor Orbán.

Zelensky’s letter – aimed mainly at Russian elites weary of the war – claimed his forces inflicted 30,000 casualties on the Russian army last month, 63% of them fatalities. Unable to recruit enough replacements with offers of high pay, Putin is thought to be considering a politically risky mass mobilisation of fighting-age men.

There is growing evidence the tide is turning against him on the battlefield as Ukraine steps up production of its own air, sea and land drones. Locally made unmanned ground vehicles with rocket-propelled grenade launchers have shown it can retake territory without deploying troops. Its latest deep-strike aerial drones have ranges in excess of 1,000km. Putin has so far declined Zelensky’s invitation.

Photograph by Jaimi Joy - WPA Pool/Getty Images