Putin will breach Ukraine peace deal unless it is defended, UK’s Starmer says

British PM told meeting of defence chiefs in London that security arrangements must be in place to ensure sovereignty for Ukraine

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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he visits a military base to meet planners mapping out next steps in the Coalition of the Willing, in Greater London, Britain on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:56am, 21 Mar 2025Updated: 4:55am, 21 Mar 2025

Russian President Vladimir Putin “will breach” a peace agreement in Ukraine unless any potential deal is defended, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he attended a meeting of defence chiefs aimed at drawing up military plans for a peacekeeping force.

Starmer said he was “certain” the Russian president would flout the terms of a truce unless security arrangements were in place to ensure sovereignty for the war-torn country.

Starmer and British Defence Secretary John Healey are meeting military planners from the UK and allied countries gathering in London to firm up proposals for a peacekeeping operation in Ukraine.

Discussions are taking place about how best to deter further Russian aggression against Kyiv amid fragile diplomatic efforts to secure a deal to end the war, including the prospect of UK forces currently guarding Nato’s eastern flank being redeployed to Ukraine with other allies filling the gap.

Speaking after arriving at the meeting, Starmer said: “Last weekend and two weekends before that, we had groupings of international political leaders coming together to provide the political alignment and the collective agreement that we need to work together to ensure that any deal that is put in place is defended.

“What’s happening here is turning that political intention into reality, the concept into plans.”