UK and France to present Ukraine peace plan to Trump, PM says

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK and France will work with Ukraine "on a plan to stop the fighting" with Russia - and will then "discuss that plan with the United States".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is attending a summit of European leaders, two days after a fiery exchange with US President Donald Trump in the White House.

Sir Keir told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that his "driving purpose" right now was to act as a "bridge" between the two men.

Asked about how he felt watching the spat in the White House, Sir Keir sought to play down the incident, saying "nobody wants to see that" and admitted he felt "uncomfortable".

The PM's response was to pick up the phone to his counterparts Trump and Zelensky that same night, in an effort to "get us back to the central focus", he said.

"There are a number of different routes people can go down. One is to ramp up the rhetoric as to how outraged we all are or not."

He said the other option was to "roll up my sleeves" and quickly phone both men - and then also to speak to French President Emmanuel Macron about the role that the leading nations of Europe would play.

"Because my reaction was we have to bridge this, we have to find a way that we can all work together because in the end we've had three years of bloody conflict now, we need to get to that lasting peace".

Months of faux outrage followed by every European leader going down the road to Canossa

— Odysseas 🇵🇸 (@RealOdysseas) March 1, 2025

Zelenskyy: UK billions will aid Ukrainian weapons production | DW News |

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a UK loan of over 2 billion pounds would be used for weapons production in Ukraine. The deal in London came after the Ukrainian leader's tumultuous meeting with Donald Trump.

Free world must stand up to evil, Czech president says

Czech President Petr Pavel said in a post on X that it was time "to start considering a broad coalition of willing for just peace in Ukraine."

The time has come to start considering a broad coalition of willing for just peace in Ukraine. "Peace" on terms of the aggressor is called a capitulation and would only encourage all current and future aggressors. Free world must stand up to the evil.

— Petr Pavel (@prezidentpavel) March 1, 2025

I had a productive meeting with the President of the Council of Ministers of Italy @GiorgiaMeloni to develop a joint action plan for ending the war with a just and lasting peace.

No one other than Putin is interested in the continuation and quick return of the war. Therefore, it... pic.twitter.com/3xCF7qTiCv

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 2, 2025

Historic £1.6bn deal provides thousands of air defence missiles for Ukraine and boosts UK jobs and growth

The latest measures in the UK's support for Ukraine to achieve peace through strength, the deal will also provide a major boost to the UK economy and support 700 existing jobs at Thales in Belfast, which will manufacture more than 5,000 lightweight-multirole missiles (LMM) for Ukraine's defence. The deal will see production of LMMs at Thales's factory treble and will also benefit companies in the Thales Supply Chain across the UK - putting more money in working people's pockets.

It is the largest contract ever received by Thales in Belfast and the second largest MOD has placed with Thales, building on a previous contract with Thales, signed in September 2024 for 650 missiles. The first batch of missiles were delivered before Christmas, and this new contract will continue deliveries.

Europe's Panic as Peace Prospects Emerge | EU Parliament - Jeffrey Sachs |

In Germany, the SPD ruling party has shockingly collapsed in public support. Macron is very unpopular in France. What's puzzling, why I say I'm confused, is that these politicians are not following public opinion. They're not acting like politicians trying to maximize public support or the vote. What are they doing exactly?

I had interpreted and still basically do interpret the last 30 years as US-led, a US-led adventure of unipolarity that was manifest most explicitly in NATO enlargement, and that Europe reluctantly signed on to that.

What we think we know from events like the Bucharest summit in 2008 of NATO, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France were resistant to following the US line of NATO enlargement and especially a clear commitment, a roadmap for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO. So they were resistant, but they dropped their resistance at the Bucharest summit under pressure from the United States and then acceded to the US approach.

That included Europe agreeing to the coup and the fact that the United States actively promoted regime change in February 2014, and actually the United States recognized a government brought in by a violent coup a day after European foreign ministers had negotiated almost exactly the opposite, a continuation of the Yanukovych government for many months until there would be national elections later in 2014. So the Europeans folded their hand on February 22nd, 2014 and went the American route.

US Expansion and European Compliance

My interpretation has been that America led what I have called a game. It was a game of US expansion, US unipolarity, US aiming to weaken and extend Russia. The word "extend Russia" is the word that the Rand Corporation used in 2019 to say, "do everything you can to weaken, annoy, undermine Russia." What a policy, by the way, just mind boggling that adults should behave like children in this reckless manner. But that's what they did.

Now, Europe suddenly is given a prospect that this absurd, failed, disastrous approach will end. And they say, "No way. We'll continue the war." Of course, they can't continue the war. Even with the United States, Russia was winning the war on the battlefield and wasn't going to be defeated. Europe by itself, it's preposterous to talk in the terms that they are speaking.

Added links are mine - Oui ... evidence my close coverage and analysis withstood the test of historical facts.

'Sapere aude'

EU Must Act NOW!
Von der Leyen's URGENT Call to Arm Ukraine Like a 'Steel Porcupine'

'Sapere aude'

Angela Merkel on Ukraine, Putin and her legacy | DW News |

'Sapere aude'

Minsk Agreements: 'We Were Fooled by the West' | 2 Jan. 2023 |

Earlier last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was hoping for peace agreements back when it signed the Minsk agreements in 2014, but it was fooled.

"We all endured, endured, endured and hoped for some kind of peace agreement, but now it turns out that we were simply fooled," Putin told reporters.

"After the revelations of [ex-German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, [ex-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, and other politicians about the true goals of the Minsk agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said a day before Putin's statement. 

Moreover, Merkel, who was in office from 2005 to 2021, said earlier that month that the Minsk accords were signed to "give Ukraine time" to strengthen itself.

"The 2014 Minsk agreement was an attempt to give time to Ukraine. It also used this time to become stronger as can be seen today. The Ukraine of 2014-2015 is not modern Ukraine," Merkel said.

• Merkel's Explosive Interview Die Zeit
• European Betrayal of Minsk Agreements

🇷🇺🇺🇦🇩🇪 Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit:

"The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time. They used that time to get stronger, which you can see today. Ukraine of 2014/15 is not Ukraine of today. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/PRd78CCcsO

— Jos Quinten (@TaranQ) December 7, 2022