Starmer ‘Coached’ Zelensky Behind the Scenes as PM Breaks Silence on Explosive Trump Row
Sir Keir Starmer quietly dispatched his national security adviser to Kyiv to help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky smooth things over with Donald Trump following an awkward diplomatic clash last month, The New York Times has reported.
The Prime Minister sent Jonathan Powell – a seasoned diplomat and civil servant – straight to Ukraine after the tense meeting between Trump and Zelensky. Powell’s task? Help Zelensky figure out exactly how to phrase his concerns about Russia possibly breaking a future ceasefire, without ruffling feathers in Washington, reported the Express.
It wasn’t a quick fix either. Senior officials told the paper that it took multiple sessions to get the wording just right – enough to express the real fears but not stir more drama. Starmer also decided to step in directly, phoning both leaders in an attempt to cool tensions and reassure everyone that the UK was stepping back into a leadership role on the global stage.
“On the day in which the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky didn’t go particularly well, we were under pressure to come out very critically with, you know, flowery adjectives to describe how others felt,” he told The New York Times. “I took the view that it was better to pick up the phone and talk to both sides to try and get them back on the same page.”
The Labour leader admitted that cracks in unity among Kyiv’s European and NATO allies were bound to appear eventually. With the war now stretching beyond three years, Starmer said it was time for a renewed push to take the initiative.
“In our heart of hearts, we’ve known this moment was coming from just over three years ago, when Russian tanks rolled across the border. We have to treat this as a galvanising moment and seize the initiative.”
There’s also growing chatter around whether Starmer will need to shift the UK’s focus away from Europe and towards the US. The UK risks being frozen out of a massive £125 billion EU defence fund unless a security agreement is signed with Brussels. But Starmer isn’t keen on choosing sides.
“Many people are urging us to choose between the US and Europe. Churchill didn’t do it. Attlee didn’t do it. It’d be a big mistake, in my view, to choose now,” he said. “I do think that President Trump has a point when he says there needs to be a greater burden borne by European countries for the collective self-defence of Europe.”
Meanwhile, The Financial Times reports that European leaders are quietly working on plans to reduce US dominance in NATO. Some are even preparing long-term strategies to take more control of European defence, just in case American support wavers in the future. One official summed it up: “We’re starting those talks but it is such a big task that many are overwhelmed by the scale of it.”