Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be joined by President Volodymyr Zelensky at Downing Street on Thursday morning.

Europe braces for the outcome of President Donald Trump’s face-to-face discussions with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, later this week.

The UK prime minister’s meeting with Mr Zelensky came after he said Britain stood ready to “increase pressure” on Russia if necessary.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump threatened Russia with “severe consequences” if a ceasefire was rejected by its leader.

During a call with the U.S. president and European allies on Wednesday, Mr Starmer praised Mr Trump for his work to bring forward a “viable” chance of ending the war.

However, concerns had been raised over Mr Zelensky’s exclusion from the meeting between Messrs Trump and Putin, which is set to take place in Alaska on Friday.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Starmer said, “This meeting on Friday that President Trump is attending is hugely important. As I’ve said personally to President Trump, for the three-and-a-bit years this conflict has been going on, we haven’t got anywhere near a prospect of a viable solution. A viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire in the war, and now we do have that chance because of the work that the president has put in.”

Further sanctions could be imposed on Russia should the Kremlin fail to engage, and the UK is already working on its next package of measures targeting Moscow, he said.

“We’re ready to support this, including from the plans we’ve already drawn up to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased. It is important to remind colleagues that we do stand ready also to increase pressure on Russia, particularly the economy, with sanctions and wider measures as may be necessary,” he told allies.

Mr Starmer and European leaders have repeatedly said discussions about Ukraine should not happen without it, amid concerns the country is being sidelined in negotiations about its own future.

Asked if it was his decision not to invite Mr Zelensky to the meeting, Mr Trump said, “No, just the opposite,” before adding that a second meeting with the Ukrainian president could take place afterwards.

“We had a very good call; he was on the call, and President Zelensky was on the call. I will rate it a 10, you know, very, very friendly,” he told reporters in Washington.

He added, “There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting which will be more productive than the first, because the first – I’m going to find out where we are and what we’re doing.”

The U.S. president had previously suggested a truce could involve some “swapping” of land.

It is believed that one of the Russian leader’s demands is for Ukraine to cede parts of the Donbas region, which it still controls.

However, Mr Zelensky has already rejected any proposal that would compromise Ukraine’s territorial integrity, which is prohibited by the country’s constitution.

A joint statement from the Coalition of the Willing, which is co-chaired by Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said “international borders must not be changed by force”.

It added, “Sanctions and wider economic measures to put pressure on Russia’s war economy should be strengthened if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire in Alaska.”

The Coalition of the Willing was a European-led initiative to deploy a peacekeeping force to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

(dpa/NAN)