Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said America’s support is crucial as he arrived in the UK to meet Keir Starmer after his clash with Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president will meet the prime minister in Downing Street on Saturday afternoon before a defence summit of European leaders on Sunday.
Zelenskyy arrived in the UK on Saturday morning after the unprecedented public clash with Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, in the White House’s Oval Office on Friday.
His plane, emblazoned with the Ukrainian flag, touched down at Stansted airport and was met by a convoy of cars.
Since the meeting in the Oval Office with Trump on Friday, leaders have been scrambling to mitigate the fallout from the diplomatic meltdown in Washington, which had been set up to discuss a rare earth minerals deal in exchange for US support in Ukraine.
“It is very important for us that Ukraine is heard and that no one forgets about it, neither during the war nor after,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram after Friday’s meeting.
In a later post on X he said: “America’s help has been vital in helping us survive, and I want to acknowledge that. Despite the tough dialogue, we remain strategic partners. But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals.”
He added: “We are ready to sign the minerals agreement, and it will be the first step toward security guarantees. But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine. We’ve been fighting for three years, and the Ukrainian people need to know that America is on our side.”
He said he was “truly thankful” for US support, adding: “We want only strong relations with America, and I really hope we will have them.”
The meeting on Friday, aimed at improving strained relations, instead resulted in Trump accusing the Ukrainian leader of “gambling with world war three”, after Zelenskyy mentioned Russia’s numerous violations of previous ceasefire deals.
“It is important for people in Ukraine to know that they are not alone, that their interests are represented in every country, in every corner of the world,” said Zelenskyy.
On Sunday, leaders from across Europe, Zelenskyy included, will meet in London for a defence summit aimed at securing peace in Ukraine. Earlier this week, the UK announced an increase in defence spending, as Europe seeks to navigate the crumbling certainties of the post-second-world-war order. The UK prime minister visited the US on Thursday in a visit that was widely regarded as successful.
After the public clash between Zelenskyy and Trump, the former Conservative UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said we were in “very uncharted waters”. The message from the meeting in Washington, he said, was that the future of Nato could not be taken for granted.
“From Europe’s point of view there is an even bigger priority than the future of Ukraine, which is the future of Nato, and there’s a simple message from what happened yesterday that we can’t take that for granted,” Hunt told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme on Saturday.
The UK, alongside France and Turkey, have recently said they are ready to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping or “peace-assuring” force. But with US aid to Ukraine far exceeding that of other countries, Hunt said if Europe wanted a “seat at the table” it should bring increased defence spending nearer to that of the US, and an offer to help police a ceasefire.
“There is one sliver of hope and that is that President Trump wants a deal and Zelenskyy is part of that,” said Hunt, who is optimistic negotiations will restart as tempers cool down. “The geo-strategic implications of simply walking away would be very bad for America as well.”
While uncertainty remains over the future of the US-Ukraine agreement, the outcome of Friday’s meeting was one that nobody expected, said Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister.
“We are really trying hard to be pragmatic and we have already shown we are interested in this negotiating process,” Sank told the Today programme. “If he [Zelenskyy] is just going to sit quietly and if he will not respond to the accusations that are not based on facts, millions of Ukrainians will feel betrayed.”
“Of course, we would like to see unity,” he added. “I think we will all calm down, emotions will be set aside and we will preserve our unity, because that’s what Putin’s plan is, to destroy the unity of the Euro-Atlantic coalition.”
