Trump softens Ukraine rhetoric following Starmer meeting
Trump says a ceasefire will be agreed "soon" or "won't be at all" and said he respected Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military, which "had fought very bravely"
Carl Court / REUTERS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump shake hands during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House, February 27, 2025 in Washington, DC, US.
Trump softens Ukraine rhetoric following Starmer meeting
The arrival of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in Washington to meet Donald Trump seemed to have moved the dial back on the US president's antagonistic rhetoric toward Ukraine and its leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Ukraine, Trump says a ceasefire will be agreed "soon" or "won't be at all" and said he respected Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military which "had fought very bravely... somebody has to use that equipment and they have been very brave".
The comments are a significant departure from what the US president said last week, when he had called Zelenskyy a "dictator" who hopes to keep the "gravy train" of US funds for the Ukraine war effort going.
Starmer's visit came a few days after French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House. His meeting with Trump was seen as another attempt to prevent further fall-out between the US and Europe.
Since taking office, Trump and other senior officials within his administration have made a number of highly contentious remarks about Europe and its role within the NATO alliance, not least their differing opinions on how to resolve the Ukraine crisis.
The Trump administration has criticised its European allies for not spending enough on defence and for failing to resolve the Ukraine conflict. In addition, he has threatened to impose a range of punitive tariffs, especially targeting the European Union which he has accused of indulging in unfair trade practices.
Europeans are doing their best to maintain cordial transatlantic relations, irrespective of how provocative some of Trump's comments might appear
Deep unease
There has also been deep unease in Europe at Trump's willingness to engage directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Europe holds responsible for causing the Ukraine conflict in the first place.
Trump's highly critical attitude towards Europe was summed up in an interview he gave to Fox Business earlier this week, when he lambasted European leaders for not doing more to end the war in Ukraine.
"They didn't do anything," said Trump. "The war's going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing... They haven't done anything. Macron is a friend of mine, and I've met with the prime minister. He's a very nice guy, but nobody's done anything."
European leaders were also taken aback by the Trump administration's decision to side with Russia at the United Nations, when American diplomats attempted to scuttle a joint resolution from the European Union and Ukraine that condemned Russia three years after Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It passed with the US and Russia both voting against the resolution.
With deepening concerns in Europe that Trump's highly critical comments about Europe could lead to an irreparable rift in the Western alliance, the main purpose of the visits to Washington by prominent European leaders such as Macron and Starmer has therefore become an exercise in damage limitation, one designed to restore some balance in the relationship between the US and Europe.
Macron's visit helped to break the ice after the French leader made a point of publicly correcting Trump when he repeated his narrative that Ukraine had taken advantage of US support during its defence against Russia's full-scale invasion, and that Europe had not done enough to support the Ukrainian cause.
Directly contradicting Trump's version of events, Macron insisted that "this war cost all of us a lot of money. And this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia."
Trump tried to correct Macron's version of events, claiming that, "just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. "They get their money back."
But the French leader stuck to his guns, insisting, "to be frank, we paid sixty percent of the total effort... we provided real money to be clear."
Just how much of an impact Macron's plain-speaking will have had on Trump's attitude to the Ukraine conflict remains to be seen.
But with Starmer seeking to deliver a similarly straightforward message—that Moscow is the aggressor in the Ukraine conflict, not Kyiv, in his meetings with the American leader—it is clear that the Europeans are doing their best to maintain cordial transatlantic relations, irrespective of how provocative some of Trump's comments might appear.
UK troops offer
In an attempt to reassure Trump that Europe is willing to do more to end the Ukraine conflict, Starmer has promised to commit British forces as part of a European peacekeeping mission to safeguard Ukraine's security in the event of a peace deal being reached with Moscow.
European leaders gather at the Palais de l'Élysée in Paris to discuss a coordinated European response to US President Donald Trump's policies toward the continent and the war in Ukraine.
While the details surrounding any European military force deployed to Ukraine remain vague, Starmer and Macron have both mooted the notion of the Europeans providing the bulk of the forces for such a mission on condition that the US, the most powerful military force within the NATO alliance, provides back up, especially concerning air support.
Prior to his meeting with Trump, Starmer urged the US to provide a security "backstop" to any future European peacekeepers in Ukraine, arguing that such an offer would provide Kyiv a lasting peace and deter any future acts of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
"I'm absolutely convinced that we need a lasting peace, not a ceasefire, and for that to happen we need security guarantees," Starmer told reporters travelling with him to Washington. He said that such guarantees were vital to "deter Putin from coming again".
But the prospects of European leaders persuading Trump to provide US backing for any future military force deployed to Ukraine do not look good after the American leader appeared to reject the possibility during his first cabinet meeting, when he remarked," I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that."
The ability of the Europeans to mount their own peacekeeping mission in Ukraine will be called into question if the US refuses to provide the military backing— especially air power—that is required for such an undertaking. And if Trump remains insistent that there will be no American involvement in such a mission, then the Europeans' ability to find their own solution to the Ukraine conflict will amount to very little.
