European leaders maintain emergency Ukraine summit as US accused of ‘cuddling’ as much as Putin

European leaders will gather on Monday for crisis talks on Ukraine as Donald Trump’s team prepares to meet Russian officials to broker a peace deal.

Senior US officials are expected to hold face-to-face talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia in the coming days but Ukraine has reportedly not been invited. Steve Witkoff, the White House’s Middle East envoy, said he and national security adviser Mike Waltz were heading to Riyadh on Sunday night and they hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine”.

He insisted that “Ukraine is part of the talks” but gave no clarity on whether officials from Kyiv would be present at the meetings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his country wouldn’t accept a deal stitched up by Ukraine and Russia.

Keir Starmer will attend an emergency summit in France on Monday as European leaders scramble to respond to the US President’s attempts to seize control of the peace process.

Leaders from Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark will attend the gathering convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, along with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and the presidents of the European Council and European Commission. The PM is expected to take the message to a highly anticipated meeting with President Trump next week, where he will seek to persuade him to involve Europe in peace talks and to ditch the threat of trade tariffs.

On Sunday, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds warned there would be no “durable peace” without involvement from Ukraine. He said Mr Starmer hopes to act as a “bridge between European allies and our US allies” amid deepening tensions over security on the continent.

Mr Reynolds said: “We all want the war to end. Desperately want the war to end. I think it’s clear for that to be a durable peace, Ukraine has to be at the table, has to be part of that agreement. We believe Ukraine is on an irreversible path to Nato membership. But the US defence secretary has said everything is still on the table.”

Asked whether British troops could form part of a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, Mr Reynolds said: “We always say we’ll play our part in a peace settlement. It’s a little bit hypothetical at this stage, but of course it’s in our national interests to make sure that’s a durable peace.”

It comes amid mounting pressure on the UK Government to spell out how it will meet its commitment to hike defence spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of GDP. No10 is resisting pressure from defence chiefs to go even further amid fears that 2.5% won’t be enough to counter growing threats.

Mr Reynolds said: “The whole Cabinet, the whole Government, I think most people in this country recognise the pressures the world is under, recognise more will have to be spent on defence.”

Former Tory PM Sir John Major warned that “tin-pot dictators” would be emboldened if a peace deal allowed Vladimir Putin to retain control of Ukrainian territory. He said: “Consider what happens if Russia can claim a win: China is going to notice that, and so will the world, and so will every tin-pot dictator around the world.

“If America is not to stand behind its allies in the way the world has previously seen, then we are moving into a wholly different and in my view, rather more dangerous world.”

He also accused the US of “cuddling” up to Vladimir Putin as he took aim at US Vice President JD Vance for ranting at European leaders on free speech. Sir John said: “It’s extremely odd to lecture Europe on the subject of free speech and democracy at the same time as they’re cuddling Mr Putin.

“In Mr Putin’s Russia, people who disagree with him disappear or die or flee the country or, on a statistically unlikely level, fall out of high windows somewhere in Moscow. To lecture the West about democracy seems to be rather odd. He really should be doing that in Moscow or perhaps in Beijing.”

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Israel’s aim of “eradicating” Hamas on a visit to Jerusalem to meet Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. “As long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible,” he said. “It must be eradicated.”

Mr Rubio is also expected to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in the coming days.