The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, received the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, as well as the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, last night at 10 Downing Street. They all participated in an emergency meeting that comes after a new escalation in Russian attacks with heavy weapons and a worrying drone bombing near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
According to the official statements issued after the meeting, the European leaders addressed the “urgent need” to accelerate the production of interceptors and jointly develop anti-ballistic defense and long-range attack capabilities and also tried to set the conditions of the European allies in the face of a hypothetical peace process.
There are five: the immediate and total ceasefire of the war; that the current line of contact (the front lines/borders of Ukrainian land and Russian-occupied land) be the starting point for negotiations; that the ceasefire be respected with legally binding security guarantees for Ukraine; that Russia stops its aggression and fully compensates Ukraine for all damage caused to the country as a result of the war – until then, Russian assets remain frozen – and that Ukraine’s aspirations for EU and NATO membership are not compromised in any way.
Alarm over Oreshnik missiles and nuclear threats
The summit, held behind closed doors in the British capital, was marked by unanimous condemnation of the recent wave of massive offensives perpetrated by Moscow. Western leaders strongly denounced the continued Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian urban centers, emphasizing the repeated use of the new Russian hypersonic ballistic missiles, known as Oreshnik, which have left a tragic toll of civilian victims. They also described Russia’s military maneuvers as “irresponsible and dangerous.”
Hours before the meeting in London, Zelensky had harshly condemned a “vile” attack with Russian drones that caused material damage to a spent nuclear fuel storage center, located just 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the historic Chernobyl nuclear plant. Despite military pressure from Moscow, the Ukrainian president was firm before starting talks. In statements to the media, Zelensky promised that Ukraine will not “die in silence” and assured: “We will respond. We will become stronger and stronger every day.”
“Immediate and complete”
At the end of the multilateral session – after which Starmer and Zelensky continued meeting alone for another half hour – the European bloc, known diplomatically as the E3 group (United Kingdom, France and Germany), formally urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to accept an “immediate and complete ceasefire.”
Western powers propose the current line of contact on the front as the technical starting point for any formal peace negotiations. This summit coincides with a moment of great dynamism in the conflict, in which Ukraine attempts to capitalize on a series of successful long-range drone attacks within Russian territory. Just this week, Ukrainian offensives hit strategic Russian positions, including oil terminals and a naval port in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown.
Both London and Paris reaffirmed their leadership in the initiative called the “coalition of the willing” (coalition of the willingas they call it) a formula with which they seek to articulate firm and independent security guarantees for Ukraine in the face of the future peace process.
