Ukraine: Europe must do heavy lifting, but with U.S. support - Starmer

The main responsibility must fall on European countries to help Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, according to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but he added that American support was crucial.

Starmer unveiled a four-step plan to guarantee peace in Ukraine following a summit in London with European leaders on Sunday.

"Europe must do the heavy lifting, but to defend peace on our continent, and to succeed, this effort must be strongly supported by the United States," the British leader said.

Starmer said the UK, France and others had agreed to work with Ukraine to end the fighting that has lasted over three years. It was also announced the UK government would allow Ukraine to use $2 billion of UK export finance to buy over 5,000 air defense missiles.

The summit came just over two days since the extraordinary blowout between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump. It was a much warmer welcome in the UK capital for Zelenskyy who followed the summit by meeting King Charles III at the monarch's estate at Sandringham.

Asked about Europe's relationship with the U.S., Starmer said he did not accept that the United States under President Donald Trump was an unreliable ally.

"Nobody wanted to see what happened last Friday, but I do not accept that the U.S. is an unreliable ally," Stamer said.

"The U.S. has been a reliable ally to the UK for many, many decades, and continues to be. There are no two countries as closely aligned as our two countries and our defence, our security and intelligence is intertwined in a way no two other countries are."

During the summit, the four points agreed included keeping the military aid flowing into Ukraine, to have Kyiv at the table for peace talks, for European leaders to aim to deter any future Russian offensive in Ukraine and a "coalition of the willing" would be formed to defend Ukraine and guarantee peace.

A number of countries indicated they wanted to be part of Europe's planned "coalition of the willing," Starmer said.

Without naming the countries, he said: "On the coalition of the willing, yes, a number of countries indicated that they want to be part of the plan that we are developing.

"I'll leave them to make their own statements about exactly how they want to make that contribution, but we've been able to move that forward."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added: "We urgently need to rearm Europe."

She also announced that she would present "a comprehensive plan" on how to rearm Europe at the EU's special defence summit next Thursday, citing the need to increase defense spending "over a sustained period of time."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a halt in fighting would provide an impetus for potential peace talks for Ukraine.

"It would be very helpful if the bombing were to stop. That would also be the starting point for talks that can then continue," Scholz said. 

He said that a focus for allies will be to ensure that Ukraine has a strong army when the conflict is over so that it can defend itself against any future aggression. "The basis of everything will be a strong army," Scholz said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk insisted the West had to resist "blackmail and aggression" from Russia, calling for unity between Europe and the U.S. on Ukraine.