Starmer Pressed On Negotiating Peace For Ukraine And Russia: ‘What If Russia Simply Won’t Accept’?

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During Saturday’s Press Briefing, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer answered questions about strategies for negotiating a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you. I will now take some questions, starting with, I think, Hannah from the BBC.

00:08Hannah.

00:13Thank you, Prime Minister. You've said now is the time for concrete commitments.

00:20Can you give an example of a concrete commitment that has been made this morning?

00:24How many countries have indicated they might put troops on the ground, for example?

00:28And a second, if I may, you're doing all of this work on what a peacekeeping force might look like.

00:35What if Russia simply won't accept one?

00:39Well, let me start from the premise that a lot has happened, obviously, since we had the meeting at Lancaster House just under two weeks ago,

00:49particularly developments this week in relation to the position of Ukraine.

00:55And the group that met this morning is a bigger group than we had two weeks ago.

00:59There is a stronger collective resolve and new commitments were put on the table this morning,

01:05both in relation to the coalition of the willing in terms of defending the deal,

01:12also in relation to the wider point, which is the collective defence and security of Europe.

01:17So more commitments on the table this morning and an agreement that we now move to the operational phase,

01:23which is why the talks on Thursday, the military talks, will become the next focal point.

01:30There was a wider agreement this morning, which was that the yes, but from Russia is not good enough

01:39and that we agreed collective pressure will be put on Russia from all of us who are in the meeting this morning.

01:48So I'd say overall, we are successfully gathering political and military momentum.

01:54I think more widely, there was an appreciation this morning that a wider argument that I've been making

02:00that goes beyond just the question of Ukraine is that Europe needs to step up in its own defence and security.

02:07And so we move forward on that front today because some of the commitments that were made were beyond simply

02:14the coalition of the willing in relation to making sure that we can defend any deal in Ukraine if one is reached,

02:21but also a step up for the collective defence and security of Europe,

02:26which is a really important part of the argument I've been making about the era that we're now in.

02:32In terms of Russia's position, I think it's really important at this point that we put maximum pressure on Russia.

02:39This yes, but is not good enough.

02:43And that's why the collective resolve this morning was to put pressure and we can collectively put pressure on Russia.

02:51There were a lot of countries represented this morning, a very strong collective resolve.

02:56And so I think we've made real progress this morning and that momentum and that resolve by a number of countries

03:02and making sure we continue to be forward leaning is really important.

03:07Thank you very much. I've got Harry from ITV.

Starmer Pressed On Negotiating Peace For Ukraine And Russia: ‘What If Russia Simply Won’t Accept’?

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