The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the US vice-president, JD Vance, held a meeting with Ukrainian and European partners in Britain on Saturday to discuss the drive for peace in Ukraine.
The summit comes before a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin set for next Friday in Alaska. In a comment that that was met with pushback from Kyiv, the US president said that an end to the war must involve “some swapping of territories”. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stressed early on Saturday that “Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers”.
Trump has agreed to meet the Russian president even if he refuses to meet Zelenskyy, adding to fears Ukraine could be sidelined in negotiations.
A White House official said later on Saturday that Trump was open to holding a trilateral summit in Alaska with Putin and Zelenskyy, but that it was planning a bilateral meeting with Putin at the Russian’s president’s request.
In a Telegram post on Saturday in which he emphasised Kyiv must be represented for any peace deal to be viable, Zelenskyy wrote: “Any decisions that are without Ukraine are at the same time decisions against peace. They will not bring anything. These are dead decisions. They will never work.”
The meeting between Lammy and Vance took place at Chevening in Kent. The Guardian understands it was held at the request of the US.
On Saturday evening, Lammy posted on X that he had held a meeting with Vance, Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defence minister, and European national security advisers.
“The UK’s support for Ukraine remains ironclad as we continue working towards a just and lasting peace,” he said.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday evening that the meeting of security advisers from Ukraine and its partner countries had been constructive, adding that Kyiv’s arguments were heard and dangers were taken into account.
Zelenskyy said officials from Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland took part in the meeting, aiming to consolidate positions to achieve a ceasefire.
“The path to peace for Ukraine should be determined together and only together with Ukraine, this is key principle,” he said in his evening address.
On Saturday evening the leaders of the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Poland and Finland, and the president of the EU Commission, released a joint statement declaring that the path to peace could not be decided without Ukraine.
“We welcome President Trump’s work to stop the killing in Ukraine, end the Russian Federation’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace and security for Ukraine,” they said.
“We are convinced that only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed.
“We stand ready to support this work diplomatically as well as by upholding our substantive military and financial support to Ukraine.”
On Saturday morning Starmer and Zelenskyy had talked by phone. A No 10 spokesperson said: “Both leaders welcomed president Trump’s desire to bring this barbaric war to an end and agreed that we must keep up the pressure on Putin to end his illegal war.” The statement added that Starmer had reiterated “his unwavering support for Ukraine and its people” during the call.
Zelenskyy communicated with Trump and European leaders in recent days as news broke that the US leader and Putin were planning to meet. On Friday Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said there could be a “freeze” in the conflict.
If the summit goes ahead between Trump and Putin, it will be the first time a US president has met the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The last meeting Putin had with a US president was with Joe Biden in Geneva in June 2021.
