His comments have come just before he travels to Paris to hold crisis talks
Sir Keir Starmer has warned that the UK is facing a ‘generational challenge when it comes to national security’ ahead of his trip to Paris for emergency talks with European leaders on the war in Ukraine.
Speaking in Bristol, the prime minister said: “We’re facing a generational challenge when it comes to national security.
“Obviously, the immediate question is the future of Ukraine, and we must continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position whatever happens next, and to make sure that if there is peace – and we all want peace – that it is lasting.”
However, Starmer said there is a ‘bigger piece here as well’ as he said the challenges we face are no longer just about the front line of Ukraine.
He said: “It’s the front line of Europe and of the United Kingdom. It’s our national security.”
The prime minister has also said he’s ‘prepared to send troops to Ukraine’ if a peace deal is reached as he and other European leaders prepare for crisis talks.
However, he denied there were splits between the US and Europe over Ukraine’s future and European defence.
Starmer is set to hold talks with Donald Trump in DC next week, No 10 has said.
It comes after Trump held a call with Russian president Vladimir Putin which he said was ‘great’ and said there was a ‘good possibility of ending that horrible, very bloody war’.
Moscow currently controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, mainly in the south and east.
Ukraine has always insisted any peace deal must include the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine back to the pre-2014 borders, including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.
