Starmer: US 'backstop' vital to deter future Russian attacks on Ukraine

Trump urged to offer 'security guarantee' for peacekeeping force

- Patrick Wintour

Keir Starmer urged Donald Trump to provide a US "backstop" to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine yesterday and said it was the only way to deter Russia from attacking the country again.

The prime minister's appeal to the US president came after an emergency summit in Paris at which European leaders called for a massive boost in defence spending.

Some leaders at the summit - especially Germany's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is one week from an election - wanted to block discussion about a European force to help enforce a ceasefire in Ukraine. But Starmer, after committing on Sunday to the principle of sending British troops, pressed ahead and insisted that such a force was feasible only with US support.

Speaking after the three-hour summit, he said: "Europe must play its role, and I'm prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others, if there is a lasting peace agreement. But there must be a US backstop because a US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again."

His remarks amount to a call for Trump to recognise that he cannot wash the US's hands of Ukraine without also damaging European security.

The emergency summit was convened by Emmanuel Macron amid growing fears in European capitals that Trump and Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, are trying to negotiate the future of the continent's security over the heads of European leaders.

UK defence officials say that even if a 30,000-strong European force is deployed away from the frontline in a reassurance role, it will need the protections, including air cover and logistics, that only Nato - specifically the US - can provide.

Scholz agreed with Starmer that such a force was inconceivable without US backing, but criticised the current discussion about troops as "completely premature and the completely wrong time to have this discussion".