"Ready and willing"

Soldiers for Ukraine: the British are pressing ahead

British soldiers train for an emergency.

(Bild: AFP/Adrian DENNIS)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that he is ready to send British soldiers to Ukraine. The statements are particularly explosive in view of the potential withdrawal of the USA from Europe. A crisis meeting should bring solutions.

In a guest article in the "Daily Telegraph" newspaper on Sunday, Starmer wrote that the leading role London has played so far in supporting Kiev "also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine by deploying our own troops on the ground if necessary".

On Saturday, Starmer had called for greater European involvement in NATO. "It is clear that Europe must take a greater role in NATO as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine's future," he said. Given the "reality of the world today and the threat posed by Russia", national security was experiencing a "generational defining moment", he added.

Concern about declining US involvement
He also called for further cooperation between Europe and the USA within NATO. Within the alliance, "we must not allow divisions (...) to distract us from the external enemies we face", he declared on the second day of the Munich Security Conference, which was marked by uncertainty about the future direction of US policy. The UK will "work to ensure that we keep the US and Europe together", he added.

The British Prime Minister will join German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and other European heads of government, EU Council President António Costa, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Marc Rutte in Paris for an informal summit. They will discuss the situation in Ukraine and "the challenges to security in Europe".

Contradictory announcements from the USA
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he might meet with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin "very soon". Trump had held a one-and-a-half-hour telephone conversation with Putin on Wednesday and subsequently declared that he had agreed with him to begin negotiations on the future of Ukraine "without delay".

Trump's comments had raised fears that Ukraine and its European partners would be excluded from the talks. At the Munich Security Conference on Friday, US Vice President JD Vance also spoke out in favor of European participation in the negotiations. Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, then said in Munich on Saturday that the Europeans would not sit at the negotiating table - but could make a "contribution".