Starmer says Putin will violate ceasefire unless Ukraine is protected

As reported by Ukrinform with reference to the BBC, Starmer made this statement on Thursday in London after a meeting with military leaders of the countries of the “coalition of the willing,” who expressed their readiness to support Ukraine in the confrontation with Russia.

Any agreement to end hostilities between Russia and Ukraine would only be “long-term” if “security measures were observed,” the prime minister said.

Starmer stressed that the security measures would demonstrate to Russia that “if any agreement is broken there will be serious consequences.”

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The prime minister said Britain and its allies were moving from a “major push” to “military planning” which he believed “needed to happen now” before an agreement could be reached.

“It is vital that we do this work because we know one thing for sure: a deal without any backing is something that Putin will break. We know this because it has happened before. I am absolutely convinced that it will happen again,” the prime minister said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Northwood, London, held a closed meeting of defence chiefs from 20 countries to discuss proposals for deploying troops in Ukraine to ensure security under a peace deal with Russia.

Starmer told reporters that discussions in London had focused on how to “keep our skies, seas and borders, as well as Ukraine itself, safe.”

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One of the proposals discussed at the meeting was sending British Typhoon aircraft to Ukraine to provide air support, the Daily Telegraph reported.

As reported by Ukrinform, next week the leaders of the countries of the “coalition of the willing” will gather in Paris to discuss the situation in Ukraine.