Sir Keir Starmer has warned Vladimir Putin he will face “severe consequences” if he breaches any ceasefire deal.
The UK prime minister issued the warning in response to a question about whether UK troops could be drawn into Russia’s war in Ukraine as he attended a meeting of defence chiefs from 31 allied countries aimed at drawing up military plans to enforce a peace deal.
Speaking at the Northwood military headquarters in London on Thursday, he said he was “certain” the Russian president would flout the terms of a truce unless security arrangements were in place to ensure sovereignty for Kyiv.
Sir Keir said the military planning for the so-called “coalition of the willing” involved offering support to Ukraine by air, sea and land if a deal were reached. But he ruled out redeploying UK troops from countries such as Estonia to commit to Kyiv.
The warning comes after Ukraine launched a major drone assault on the Soviet-era Engels airfield, an airbase deep inside Russia that is key to the relentless missile attacks against Ukrainian cities by Putin’s forces.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky had said Russia’s continued strikes on Ukraine show their “true attitude towards peace” in the wake of another 170 drones being launched at targets across the country.
At least 10 injured in attack on Russian airfield
Russia has imposed a state of emergency in the district of Engels in the Saratov region after 10 people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a military airfield.
All those wounded are being treated in hospital and there is no threat to their lives, the head of the regional health ministry told a local TV channel.
Ukraine struck Russia’s Engels strategic bomber base on Thursday with drones, triggering a major blast and fire.
Several buildings in the area were damaged following the strike.
France will host summit with Zelensky next week, Macron says
French president Emmanuel Macron said he will host a meeting of European leaders with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris next Thursday to discuss ways to help defend Ukraine.
He said his goal was to discuss ways to speed up immediate military support, how to make a possible ceasefire work, and draw up plans to beef up the Ukrainian military after a deal and possibly deploy troops there.
Russia’s Shoigu arrives in North Korea today
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s top security adviser Sergei Shoigu has arrived in North Korea and plans to meet its leader Kim Jong Un today, Russian news agencies reported this morning.
Further details of the former Russian defence minister’s visit to North Korea are not immediately clear. North Korea’s state media have not reported on Shoigu’s arrival.
Mr Shoigu had earlier made visits to Pyongyang as North Korea geared up to deploy troops to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
According to the US and South Korean officials, North Korea has deployed more than 10,000 troops who were sent into combat in Russia’s eastern Kursk region and also shipped heavy weapons including artillery and ballistic missiles.
Analysis: Now Zelensky has his opportunity to beckon Trump back into Ukraine’s corner
Seizing the opportunity to drive a wedge between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s president has moved swiftly to usher the American president back towards his corner.
By respecting, vocally, Trump’s efforts to get a ceasefire with Russia, Ukraine has exposed Putin’s deep reluctance to agree to any lowering of hostilities until he can be sure of permanently mangling Ukraine’s sovereignty.
According to a briefing on a call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, the US president has calmed down, stopped calling him a “dictator”, and come up with an agreement to supply some badly needed air defences for Ukraine.
Sam Kiley writes from Odesa:
Starmer says time for Ukraine peacekeeping force planning is now
Prime minister Keir Starmer said he didn’t know whether there would be a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war, but “we are making steps in the right direction” as a “coalition of the willing” led by Britain and France moves into an “operational phase.”
“We hope there will be a deal but what I do know is if there is a deal, the time for planning is now,” he said during a visit to the meeting of military planners at a British base in Northwood, just outside London. “It’s not after a deal is reached.”
“It is vitally important we do that work, because we know one thing for certain which is a deal without anything behind it is something that (Russian president Vladimir) Putin will breach,” he said.
His remarks come as senior military officers from more than 30 countries across Europe and beyond met in England yesterday to flesh out plans for an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine as details of a partial ceasefire are worked out.
Watch: Starmer makes rare nuclear submarine visit in show of strength
Editorial: Sir Keir’s ‘coalition of the willing’ is proving to be principled – and a rallying cry for Ukraine
Military leaders met behind closed doors in London for what was billed as operational planning for Sir Keir Starmer’s “coalition of the willing”. EU leaders, meanwhile, thrashed out preparations for closer defence cooperation and the eventuality, however distant, of peace in Ukraine; Volodymyr Zelensky reported from Norway on his recent “friendly” phone call with Donald Trump.
With much of the recent action happening between Washington and Moscow, and with diplomatic meetings taking place in Saudi Arabia, it has been all too possible to neglect the role that could and should be played by Europe and the Europeans. Here was an illustration of why they matter.
Read more here:
Watch emotional reunions in Ukraine as hundreds of prisoners of war return: ‘His birthday will be at home’
UPDATE: Russian drones hit civilian targets in Ukraine’s Odesa injuring three, governor says
Russian forces launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa late on Thursday, injuring three people and damaging a high-rise apartment building and a shopping centre, the regional governor said.
Oleh Kiper, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said there had been strikes in three locations that triggered fires, while three districts of the city were suffering from power cuts.
Public broadcaster Suspilne had earlier reported more than 18 explosions in the city after 10pm (8pm GMT).
Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the more than three-year-old war, particularly the city’s port facilities.
The governor of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, reported several strikes on areas near the city of Zaporizhzhia, including one guided bomb. He said five people were injured, including a child.
Russia says Ukrainian drone attack on oil depot already violates proposed ceasefire
Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that Ukraine had already violated a proposed ceasefire on energy sites in the three-year-old war by attacking a Russian oil depot.
Russia’s TASS news agency reported foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state television Channel One that it was up to the United States, which had proposed the ceasefire, to confront Ukraine over its actions.
The Kremlin said this week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump to observe a 30-day ceasefire on energy targets. The accord fell short of a wider agreement that the U.S. had sought, and which was accepted by Ukraine, for a blanket 30-day truce.
Firefighters in southern Russia were still battling a blaze at an oil depot triggered by a Ukrainian drone attack, regional authorities said on the Telegram messaging app.
“We believe that the Kyiv regime has already broken the ceasefire proposed by the US president,” Zakharova said on television, according to TASS.
Ukrainian officials have also accused Russia of failing to align their actions with their pledges by launching attacks on civilian targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that Russian attacks on infrastructure, including hospitals and rail equipment, showed “Putin’s words are very different from reality”.
Source: independent.co.uk