'Europe must do the heavy lifting’
"Europe must do the heavy lifting" in securing peace in Ukraine, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said yesterday, as he hosted crisis talks in London on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, just days after a Kyiv-Washington clash.
"Europe must do the heavy lifting, but to support peace in our continent, and to succeed, this effort must have strong US backing," said Starmer, who also announced a deal allowing Ukraine to use £1.6 billion ($2 billion) of UK export finance to buy more than 5,000 air defence missiles.
Eighteen allies were gathered on the key question of security guarantees for Ukraine, all the more pressing after US President Donald Trump berated his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in an unprecedented White House blow-up.
Sitting next to Zelensky in front of the flags of Ukraine and European nations, summit host Starmer said it was "a once-in-a-generation moment for the security of Europe and we all need to step up".
