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Keir Starmer has promised sweeping sanctions to heap pressure on Russia and get President Vladimir Putin ‘not just to talk, but to make concessions’. The UK prime minister said US President Donald Trump has ‘changed the global conversation’ around Ukraine but that this provided an ‘opportunity’ as world leaders marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion. He repeated calls for Ukraine to have a seat at the table for any peace talks and for a US ‘backstop’ to any peace agreement, which he is expected to discuss with Trump when he visits Washington later this week. In remarks to a gathering of Ukraine’s allies, Starmer also said a new package of UK sanctions will go after Russia’s so-called shadow fleet as well as companies in China and elsewhere providing Moscow with military components. ‘We must keep dialling up the economic pressure to get Putin to a point where he is ready not just to talk, but to make concessions,’ he said in a remote address to the meeting in Kyiv. The Home Office has announced a move to widen travel sanctions for Kremlin-linked elites. Local and federal politicians as well as managers or directors of large Russian companies will face exclusion from the UK under the rules, which come on top of existing travel bans on high-profile business figures such as former Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich. Starmer said he would urge the G7 to take on more risk in relation to the oil price cap, sanctioning Russian oil giants and going after banks that enable sanctions evasion. Later on Monday, Starmer will join a call with leaders of the G7 group of wealthy democracies, including Trump, whose overtures to the Russian president have alarmed Ukraine’s allies. He told the Kyiv meeting: ‘President Trump has changed the global conversation over the last few weeks, and it has created an opportunity. Now we must get the fundamentals right. ‘If we want peace to endure, Ukraine must have a seat at the table, and any settlement must be based on a sovereign Ukraine backed up with strong security guarantees. ‘The UK is ready and willing to support this with troops on the ground, with other Europeans and with the right conditions in place, and ultimately, a US backstop will be vital to deter Russia from launching another invasion in just a few years’ time.’ France’s Emmanuel Macron is in Washington for talks with Trump ahead of Starmer’s visit. Trump’s talks with Russia, his description of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky as a ‘dictator’ and claim that Kyiv started the war have shattered the transatlantic alliance on the issue. The prime minister held his second call in three days with the Ukrainian president on Sunday, promising he would be ‘progressing important discussions’ about Kyiv’s security on his visit to Washington. Starmer’s visit to Washington on Thursday will mark a critical moment in his leadership as he seeks to balance support for Kyiv with keeping the US onside. On Sunday, Zelensky said he would be ready to give up his presidency if doing so would achieve lasting peace for his country under the security umbrella of Nato, which the US has suggested is an unrealistic prospect. Some European leaders and opposition figures have openly condemned Trump’s remarks about Ukraine and Starmerhas faced pressure to challenge the president when he visits Washington. The prime minister has backed Zelensky as a ‘democratically elected leader’, but avoided directly criticising the US president. Starmer is also facing pressure to use the trip to confirm a timeline to raise UK defence spending to 2.5% of national income amid US demands that Europe shoulder the overwhelming burden of security on the continent. Ministers had previously suggested a path towards reaching the target would be set out in the spring following the strategic defence review. By Helen Corbett and David Hughes Press Association: News source: PA Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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