Sir Keir Starmer has warned Vladimir Putin to get serious about peace in Ukraine as he urged Western leaders to ramp up economic pressure to force him to the negotiating table.
The prime minister accused the Russian leader of “playing games” over peace talks, as he prepared to host a virtual summit of around 25 countries on Saturday.
The countries in the “coalition of the willing”, which include Britain, France, Australia and Canada, will discuss how to help Kyiv deter future Russian aggression in the event of any peace deal.
The meeting comes as Putin continues to resist a ceasefire in the bloody three-year war, which began when his troops invaded Ukraine.
But senior figures in the US sounded a note of hope, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying he was “cautiously optimistic” a cessation in the fighting could be agreed.
During his meeting, Sir Keir will also call on Western leaders to make “concrete commitments”, including to ramp up economic pressure as well as military support to Ukraine to defend itself against increasing Russian attacks.
Ahead of the summit, the PM accused Putin of trying to delay and play “games” with his conditions for any deal – and said the “Kremlin’s complete disregard for Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace”.
In what will be seen as a warning to the West, he added: “If Russia finally comes to the table, then we must be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure it is a serious, and enduring peace – if they don’t, then we need to strain every sinew to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to secure an end to this war”.
He added: “My message to the Kremlin could not be clearer: stop the barbaric attacks on Ukraine, once and for all, and agree to a ceasefire now. Until then we will keep working around the clock to deliver peace.”
The meeting will look at how countries plan to contribute to the coalition of the willing, ahead of a military planning session next week.
The PM’s national security adviser Jonathan Powell is also expected to meet his American counterpart Mike Waltz in Washington this weekend, as the UK continues to pitch for the Anglo-French idea of a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine in the wake of any deal.
On Friday, allies united to call for a ceasefire with “no conditions” to halt the fighting. Mr Trump also said the US had “very good and productive” discussions with Putin, claiming there was a “very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end”.
Kyiv has already backed proposals from Washington for a 30-day ceasefire to the conflict.
Mr Putin has said the “idea is correct, and we certainly support it” but questioned the details of the plan and indicated that a series of conditions would have to be met.
Mr Trump also claimed that thousands of Ukrainian troops were “surrounded” by the Russian military and that he had “strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II.”
In his nightly address in Kyiv, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian leader was too “afraid” to tell Mr Trump he wants to continue the war.
Meanwhile, Mr Waltz has suggested Russia could get the Donbas region of Ukraine as part of any peace deal.
In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donbas, although Russian forces do not fully control the area.
In an appearance on Fox News, during which a series of suggestions about the shape of any peace deal were put to Mr Waltz, including that “maybe the Donbas region in particular… that would go to Putin”, he replied: “You’re not wrong in any of that. What’s important is we are discussing those things with both sides.”