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<\/div>\nPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a meeting between the two leaders in Washington descended into a row about US support for Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Zelensky was welcomed to the White House by Trump, but the cordial meeting quickly descended into a shouting match in the Oval Office as Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart to be more thankful for US aid and accused him of “gambling with World War Three”.<\/p>\n
A statement from No 10 on Friday night confirmed the prime minister had spoken with the US and Ukrainian presidents and that he retained “unwavering support for Ukraine”.<\/p>\n
Zelensky is due in the UK on Sunday as Sir Keir hosts a summit of European leaders to discuss an end to the the war between Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A No 10 spokesperson said: “The prime minister has tonight spoken to both President Trump and President Zelensky.<\/p>\n
“He retains unwavering support for Ukraine, and is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“The prime minister looks forward to hosting international leaders on Sunday including President Zelensky.”<\/p>\n
In the heated clash at the White House, both Trump and Zelensky interrupted each other repeatedly during what was supposed to be a prelude to the two leaders signing a minerals deal.<\/p>\n
US Vice President JD Vance, sat alongside others in the room, was also involved.<\/p>\n
A press conference scheduled to take place later in the day was cancelled, and Zelensky was asked to leave the White House before the minerals agreement could be signed.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir had met with Trump in the Oval Office the day prior, in which the pair agreed to begin work on a new US-UK trade deal.<\/p>\n
The prime minister also came bearing a letter from King Charles III inviting Trump to a state visit.<\/p>\n
There had been speculation that Sir Keir had also gone into the meeting to seek a US Security “backstop” in a European peace plan for the war in Ukraine. However, the US president stopped short of confirming such a commitment.<\/p>\n
Trump had previously criticised Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron, whom he met on Monday, of having “done nothing” to seek an end to the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Reaction to Friday’s meeting between Trump and Zelensky appeared to fall along partisan lines among US politicians, with Republicans praising Trump and Democrats criticising him.<\/p>\n
In Ukraine, there was broad appreciation for Zelensky holding his ground over what many Ukrainians see as an existential war.<\/p>\n
“Trump’s administration was so arrogant,” one man in Kyiv told the BBC. “When you look at Zelensky’s face, you understand that the discussion behind closed doors was not so polite.<\/p>\n
“They are so rude, they don’t respect the people of Ukraine. They even don’t hide it.”<\/p>\n
The Oval Office spat also prompted words of support for Zelensky from key European allies, including France.<\/p>\n
Friedrich Merz, who is expected to become Germany’s next chancellor, wrote that he stood with Ukraine “in good and testing times”, adding: “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”<\/p>\n
Russia, meanwhile, said Trump and Vance had acted with restraint. A foreign ministry spokeswoman said it was a miracle the pair had not hit Zelensky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Published at Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:33:13 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starmer speaks to Trump and Zelensky after White House row Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a meeting between the two leaders in Washington descended into a row about US support for Ukraine. Zelensky was welcomed to the White House by Trump, but… Continue reading Starmer speaks to Trump and Zelensky after White House row<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uk-politics","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/260web.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}