King Charles will hold an official audience at Sandringham with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday as the UK and EU demonstrate their “unwavering” support after his humiliation at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House.
Keir Starmer will also host European heads of government and the leaders of Canada and Turkey at a special defence summit aimed at presenting a united front on the Ukraine crisis.
On arrival in Downing Street for a meeting with Starmer on Saturday night, just 24 hours after Trump and his vice-president JD Vance subjected him to a 10-minute tirade in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy said he was “very happy” that the king had agreed to the meeting.
The offer of a royal audience was seen at Westminster as a deliberate move to give the Ukrainian president equal treatment to Trump, who was presented during his meeting at the White House on Wednesday by Starmer with an invitation to a second state visit to the UK, including a meeting with King Charles.
Last night there were reports that the UK would show further solidarity by unlocking billions of pounds of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine. The Sunday Times claimed Rachel Reeves would divert money earmarked for green investment in the UK to the defence industry. It would be the first time that money from frozen Russian assets would contribute towards military spending.
The irate exchanges between Trump and Vance, on the US side, and Zelenskyy on Friday, which led to the Ukrainian president being told to leave the White before any formal talks took place, led to fears among European and other world leaders of irreparable damage to the western alliance, and the hopes of peace in Ukraine’s war with Russia. At today’s defence summit, which demonstrates the increasingly central role being played by the UK in Europe’s defence and security, Starmer will be clear that Europe must stand united against President Putin.
Starmer said last night: “Three years on from Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we are at a turning point.” He added: “Now is the time for us to unite in order to guarantee the best outcome for Ukraine, protect European security and secure our collective future.”
Yesterday, as Zelenskyy touched down in the UK on his way back from the US, he appeared intent on trying to repair the damage caused by the diplomatic showdown in the Oval Office. He posted on social media that he was “thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support, and the American people”, adding that Trump’s support was “crucial”.
On Friday evening, Trump and Vance had accused him of not being grateful to the United States for the huge sums they had spent on helping Ukraine to defend itself following the Russian invasion in 2022.
In the starkest contrast to Friday’s meeting at the White House, Zelenskyy arrived at Downing Street to be met with cheers from crowds standing on Whitehall.
And in a clear sign that Starmer wanted to demonstrate his sympathy for Zelenskyy, the prime minister took the unusual step of walking along the pavement to greet the Ukrainian president. The two men then embraced before the prime minister gestured towards the crowds.
Inside No 10, Starmer told his guest that the cheering outside was “the people of the United Kingdom coming out to demonstrate how much they support you, how much they support Ukraine”.
Starmer said he had “absolute determination … to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a lasting peace – a lasting peace for Ukraine based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine, so important for Ukraine, so important for Europe and so important for the United Kingdom”.
Zelensky replied: “We count on your support, and we’re really happy that we have such partners and such friends.”
Among the key issues to be discussed at today’s defence summit will be the extent to which Europe can beef up its military support for Ukraine, and maintain the strength of Nato if the United States is seen to be reducing its involvement in European defence.
The leaders will also discuss how to increase economic pressures on Russia in order to hit Putin’s military machine. Many western experts say that the weakness of the Russian economy means that it has, at most, a year of being able to sustain its operations on the borders of Ukraine.
King Charles met Zelenskyy during his surprise visit to the UK in February 2023, when the king told him: “We’ve all been worried about you and thinking about your country for so long.”
Zelenskyy also used his address to parliament during that visit to thank the UK for its steadfast support, finishing by saying” “God bless, Great Britain and long live the king”.
On Friday, in their curtailed meeting, Trump had claimed Zelenskyy was “gambling with world war three” as he became increasingly angry with what he thought was Zelensky’s resistance to his plans for peace with Russia. Friday’s meeting ended with a proposed deal on exchanging Ukrainian mineral rights for American arms being put on ice.
After Starmer’s meeting with Zelenskyy, which lasted an hour, the prime minister escorted the Ukrainian president to the motorcade outside No 10 and waited to wave him off – in contrast to his lonely departure from the White House 24 hours before.
With European leaders believing the rift with the US over issues from security to trade could present an existential threat to the bloc, they will meet on Thursday, aiming to reinsert themselves into the US-led peace efforts on Ukraine. But they will insist that Ukraine be at the heart of any talks, something that the Trump administration has remained equivocal about.
“There can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine,” states the draft summit text seen by the Observer. “There can be no negotiations that affect European security without Europe’s involvement. Ukraine and Europe’s security are united.”
Summing up the sense of crisis, one EU diplomat said: “If this is not a wake-up call, then I don’t know what is. It is extremely important that the EU now moves from talking the talk, but also walking the walk in a much more focused and diligent way.”
