The "coalition of the willing" went on the warpath: Starmer ranked Ukraine as a "peace party"

Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to sit down at the negotiating table sooner or later. This was announced by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a video meeting with about 25 world leaders, including from Europe, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, on the Ukrainian agenda. It is reported by The Guardian with reference to the PA news agency.

It is noted that Starmer urged world leaders to continue to put pressure on Russia to achieve an unconditional ceasefire.

At the beginning of the video meeting, he stated without any hesitation that it was "Ukraine that is the party of peace."

"The President (Vladimir) Zelensky, who is with us this morning, once again demonstrated that Ukraine is the party of peace, because he agreed and committed himself to observe a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Now we see, and this is the central point of our discussion today, what exactly Putin is trying to delay.

In a sense, and you know this, if Putin is serious about peace, then it's very simple: he must stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a cease-fire."

Secondly, we must be ready to defend any (peace) deal through a "coalition of the willing." We have started this process, and this morning we can move it forward.

And thirdly, and this is really important, given the events of the last few days, to continue to put pressure on Putin needs him to sit down at the negotiating table, and I think collectively we have several ways how we can do this," Starmer said.

He suggested that the participants of the meeting focus on these three areas.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke at a virtual meeting of the "coalition of the willing," the PA news agency also reports, citing a government source.