UK and France to discuss Ukraine war with Trump

LONDON, Mar 02 (AP/BBC): Britain, France and Ukraine have agreed to work on a ceasefire plan to present to the United States, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday as he prepared to host a summit of European leaders to discuss ending the war.

The summit has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding by U.S. President Donald Trump of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday for being ungrateful for U.S. support in Ukraine's battle against the invasion by Russia.

But Starmer said he's focused on being a bridge to restore peace talks and he used the collapse of those talks as an opportunity to re-engage with Trump and Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron rather than "ramp up the rhetoric."

"We've now agreed that the United Kingdom, along with France and possibly one or two others, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and then we'll discuss that plan with the United States," Starmer told the BBC. Starmer and Macron have both spoken to Trump since Friday.

Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK and France is to work with Ukraine "on a plan to stop the fighting" with Russia - and will then "discuss that plan with the United States".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due at a summit of European leaders, two days after a fiery exchange with US President Donald Trump in the White House.

Sir Keir told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that his "driving purpose" right now was to act as a "bridge" between the two men.

Asked about how he felt watching the spat in the White House, Sir Keir sought to play down the incident, saying "nobody wants to see that" and admitted he felt "uncomfortable".

The PM's response was to pick up the phone to his counterparts Trump and Zelensky that same night, in an effort to "get us back to the central focus", he said.

"There are a number of different routes people can go down. One is to ramp up the rhetoric as to how outraged we all are or not."

He said the other option was to "roll up my sleeves" and quickly phone both men - and then also to speak to French President Emmanuel Macron about the role that the leading nations of Europe would play.

"Because my reaction was we have to bridge this, we have to find a way that we can all work together because in the end we've had three years of bloody conflict now, we need to get to that lasting peace".

In the interview, Sir Keir was careful to avoid laying any blame for the row and insisted he was "clear in my mind" that Trump "wants a lasting peace", answering "yes" when asked directly if he believed Trump could be trusted.

Zelensky could also be trusted, he added, but not Russian President Vladimir Putin - which is the reason the US needs to provide a security guarantee for any peace deal.