Spanish
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, assured this Monday that he will not pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the peace plan designed by the United States to end the war in his country.
Starmer made those statements before meeting today in London with Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, at his official residence at 10 Downing Street, to discuss the latest peace plan drawn up from talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Florida (USA) last week.
"I will not put pressure on the president," Starmer replied to questions from ITV News, while emphasizing that the goal of his government and allies is to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
You can also read: UNESCO admits lack of resources hinders recognition of world heritage
"I will speak with him about this (…) The most important thing is to ensure that, if there is a cessation of hostilities, and I hope there will be, it is just and lasting, and we will focus on that this afternoon," explained the head of the British Government. He also highlighted that the meeting at Downing Street of the leaders of the format known as E3 (UK, France and Germany) will offer "quite a bit of private time to talk about the peace plan". Furthermore, the Prime Minister stressed the importance of ensuring that, in the event of a truce, conditions are met because, he recalled, "we have had a ceasefire before and it has not been maintained". "It is important to bear in mind that this conflict has been going on for almost four years, that Russia is the aggressor and, therefore, if a ceasefire is desired, it must be just because Ukraine has suffered enormous losses and has paid a very high price for a war it did not provoke, but it must also be lasting, because we know that (Russian President, Vladimir) Putin does not respect agreements that do not have solid security guarantees, so we will focus on that," he pointed out. On Sunday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said that Zelensky's negotiators "love" the latest plan, but claimed to feel "a little disappointed" that the Ukrainian president "hasn't read the proposal yet." Meanwhile, Zelensky pointed out that his negotiators would inform him and that "some issues can only be addressed in person".
