Kremlin’s ‘involved’ verdict on Keir Starmer’s peacekeeping plan for Ukraine

The Kremlin has responded to Keir Starmer’s bold plans to deploy a joint European peacekeeping force in Ukraine.

After Trump’s White House signalled that US forces would not provide any firm security guarantees to Kyiv, the Prime Minister met with fellow European leaders in Paris earlier this week to discuss what support should be pledged to Ukraine in the event of a US-led peace deal. Mr Starmer has proposed a joint taskforce in Ukraine involving troops on the ground to “guarantee the security of our continent” and prevent a repeat Russian invasion. He has also said Britain is “ready and willing” to take a leading role in such an operation, which defence experts have claimed may need as many as 100,000 troops to be fully effective.

France’s Emmanuel Macron is reported to be supportive of the proposals, while the German chancellor Olaf Scholz – who is widely expected to be kicked out of office in federal elections on Sunday – has been more critical. Keir Starmer wrote in the Telegraph this week: “The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine. This includes further support for Ukraine’s military, where the UK has already committed £3 billion a year until at least 2030. But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.”

Now, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told reporters at a briefing that the presence of foreign forces in Ukraine would “cause concern” to Russia – and suggested they would be watching any developments “very closely”. He had earlier said: “Europeans are currently talking a lot about peacekeeping contingents—this includes the French and the British, and that is indeed the case. But we all know the rules for deploying peacekeeping forces. So far, no substantive discussions on this topic have taken place.”

Keir Starmer is set to meet Donald Trump at the White House next Thursday as international tensions continue to rise over the president’s repeated attacks on Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelensky. Trump this week branded Zelensky a “traitor without elections” after he was accused of repeating Russian disinformation – and late on Wednesday, Mr Starmer spoke in Zelensky’s defence, describing him as a “democratically elected leader” who had been entitled to “suspend elections during wartime”, as Winston Churchill did during World War II. Emmanuel Macron will also hold a meeting with Trump on Monday.