# Starmer says Putin cannot be allowed to ‘play games’ over Ukraine ceasefire

UK PM to host virtual meeting of ‘coalition of the willing’ nations who have agreed to help enforce peace

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Keir Starmer has warned that  cannot be allowed to “play games” with the possibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine, as he prepared to present proposals for a peace deal to a coalition of about 25 world leaders.

The UK prime minister will host a meeting on Saturday of the “coalition of the willing”, a group of nations that have agreed to help keep the peace in Ukraine. He will seek to pile pressure on the Russian president to “finally come to the table” and “stop the barbaric attacks on Ukraine” after Kyiv  to an immediate 30-day ceasefire.



A man stands on a damaged street in the frontline city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, 13 March 2025. Photograph: Ukraine's 93rd Mechanised Brigade Press Service/EPA

Putin also responded to an appeal by Trump to save the lives of “thousands” of surrounded Ukrainian soldiers, and said he would heed it as long as the soldiers surrendered. However, no evidence has emerged to back up Putin and Trump’s claims that there is a large-scale encirclement of Ukrainian troops, a claim explicitly denied by military officials in Kyiv.

The exchange of warm words between Trump and Putin is likely to cause further alarm in Kyiv and European capitals, already spooked by signs of the new US administration cosying up to Moscow while exerting pressure on Ukraine.

The remarks came after Steve Witkoff, Trump’s close ally and special envoy to the Middle East, held late-night talks with Putin on Thursday to discuss the US proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire in war on Ukraine.

Kyiv has already accepted the proposal, while Putin on Thursday set out a series of sweeping conditions that would need to be met before  would agree to the truce, which includes the condition that Ukraine should neither rearm nor mobilise during the 30-day truce.

On Friday night, in speech at the Department of Justice, Trump said the US had had “good calls” with Ukraine and Russia during the day. “I think we’ve had some very good results,” he said. “Just before I came here I got some pretty good news.”

He did not provide any details, but he later told reporters that he felt that “Russia is going to make a deal with us”.



A destroyed building and damaged vehicle at a settlement recaptured by Russian forces in the Kursk region of Russia. Photograph: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP

Downing Street refused to set out precisely what goals the prime minister hoped to get from Saturday morning’s meeting, saying it was “a fast-moving situation” with a large number of countries involved.



Abandoned Ukrainian ammunition lies in the Kursk region after it was retaken by Russian troops, according to the Russian military. Photograph: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service/AP

In a series of X posts on Friday night, Zelenskyy said Putin would “drag” everyone into “endless discussions … wasting days, weeks, and months on meaningless talks while his guns continue to kill people”.

“Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing,” he said. “That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump said he had appealed to Putin to save the lives of “thousands of Ukrainian troops” supposedly surrounded by the Russian army. Putin first made the claim earlier in the week when he said Ukrainian troops had been surrounded during a retreat from Russia’s Kursk region, and had the choice to “surrender or die”.

Trump repeated Putin’s claim, writing that thousands of troops had been “completely surrounded” during the retreat. “I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared. This would be a horrible massacre, one not seen since World War II. God bless them all!!!” he wrote.

Putin told his security council that he had heard Trump’s appeal, and said the lives of Ukrainian troops would be spared if they surrendered. The Ukrainian military and independent analysts, however, denied there was an encirclement of troops.

“Reports of the alleged ‘encirclement’ of Ukrainian units by the enemy in the Kursk region are false and fabricated by the Russians for political manipulation and to exert pressure on Ukraine and its partners,” the general staff wrote in a statement published on its media channels. “There is no threat of encirclement of our units.”

Ukrainian security sources, independent military analysts and even pro-Russian Telegram channels disputed the encirclement claims by Putin and Trump.

Despite apparent optimism from the White House, US intelligence services have reportedly assessed that Putin remains committed to achieving “his maximalist goal of dominating Ukraine”.

The Washington Post  on Friday the contents of an intelligence report circulated among Trump administration policymakers on 6 March, which stated that Putin remained determined to maintain control over Kyiv.
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