The Ukrainian president's comments to Laura Kuenssberg came after he failed to sign the deal at the White House on Friday.
Following a meeting with world leaders, Starmer has announced a £1.6bn financing package to Ukraine, the creation of a "Coalition of the Willing", and that a deal to be presented to Trump. He has emphasised:
The importance of the US's participation in the coalition
I mean this doesn't sound like any forward movement at all, this sounds like nothing. This sounds like a plan predicated on Trump becoming a completely different person overnight, and brokering a deal with Russia that can be trusted, laugh with me
I think there is a lot more to it than what is being presented. We're getting the "carrot" version of things, there will almost certainly be a "stick" that will be presented, and Starmer will outline the grave consequences of the USA not cooperating.
It was interesting that Starmer seemed so confident that Trump would agree. This means either he's hugely bluffing to put on a show, or the nice guy show to Trump is over and they can get him to bend by force.
with so many foreign troops fighting for russia in ukraine, there is zero justification for european troops not to be fighting with the ukranians as well. zero. every day that uk & france aren't mobilzing and deploying troops to ukraine is just more european stalling until complete abandonment
Russia isn't in any way a threat to expand their invasion. If they could simultaneously invade Poland they wouldn't be struggling so hard to reclaim their own territory, let alone conquer Ukraine. China is the one powerful and expansive enough to worry about.
What plausible stick could the UK (with or without EU) wield against the US? Pull out of NATO or the Five Eyes? That would hurt them way more than it would hurt the US, and Trump knows they're too rational to let it happen.
I mean he just casually pledged 1.6 billion so that's not nothing. The only plan there was ever going to be was what Europe was already doing, only more of it.