Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (R) and President Trump (L) attend a joint press conference following their meeting at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on Sept. 18 on the second day of the US President’s second State Visit.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
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Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he and President Trump had discussed during a meeting at his Chequers country residence how to support Ukraine and increase pressure Russia to end its war.
“In recent days, Putin has shown his true face mounting the biggest attack since the invasion began, with yet more bloodshed, yet more innocents killed, and unprecedented violations of NATO airspace,” Starmer said during his opening remarks to a press conference.
“These are not the actions of someone who wants peace. So we’ve discussed today how we can build our defenses to further support Ukraine, and decisively increase the pressure on Putin to get him to agree a peace deal that will last,” Starmer said.
It’s been a month since Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks in Alaska — a meeting he said would lead to talks between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy. But that meeting has not transpired, and Russian strikes on Ukraine have intensified.
Starmer has led other European leaders to push Trump to do more to support Ukraine. But ahead of the trip, Trump conditioned new sanctions on Russia on NATO members cutting off energy purchases from Russia and applying massive tariffs on imports of Chinese goods.
Trump, in his opening remarks, expressed frustration with Putin, saying he had expected to have an easier time brokering an end to the war because of his good relationship with the Russian president. “He’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump said.
The comments come at the end of a state visit to the United Kingdom where the British government sought to leverage his love of the monarchy to work with Trump on trade and national security goals.
After an opulent banquet at Windsor Castle with the royal family on Wednesday, Trump traveled to Chequers, the prime minister’s country estate, where he met with top business leaders from both countries as well as Starmer.
At Chequers on Thursday, Trump and Starmer signed an agreement to work on expanding cooperation on technology and nuclear energy. Trump said the agreement on expanding nuclear energy would help expand AI because of that industry’s need for electricity.
This story will be updated.
