UK's Starmer: EU Must Guarantee Ukraine’s Safety After Ceasefire

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stressed that the European Union must take a leading role in establishing robust security guarantees for Ukraine.

In an interview with The New York Times, published on March 23, Starmer warned that any peace agreement without reliable security arrangements would leave Ukraine vulnerable to future Russian aggression.

“I don’t trust Putin, and therefore I take everything he says with some degree of caution,” Starmer told the publication. “We know what happens if there aren’t security arrangements, which is, he’ll breach the deal in due course, in his own time.”

“How do we take the concept into a plan? How do we make sure there’s a plan we can put in place if there is a deal? What we can’t do is wait for a deal and say, ‘Right,’ then scratch our heads,” he said.

Starmer also noted that Putin will insist that Ukraine remain defenseless after a peace deal — something the UK prime minister says cannot be allowed to happen.

“I’m sure Putin would try to insist that Ukraine should be defenseless after a deal because that gives him what he wants, which is the opportunity to go in again,” Starmer said in a separate statement quoted by The New York Times.

The UK and France recently hosted talks in Paris with representatives from more than 30 countries to discuss security arrangements for Ukraine after a potential ceasefire. According to the Associated Press, the discussions included proposals to deploy heavily armed peacekeeping forces and the possibility of launching immediate strikes on Russian military targets in the event of ceasefire violations.

Earlier, The United Kingdom has signaled its readiness to help intercept Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory as part of a potential future peace agreement—provided that key military and political conditions are met.