Zelenskyy, Starmer and Macron convene in London to forge security guarantees amid escalating hostilities
Diplomatic talks follow a week of intensified Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure and a drone attack near Chornobyl, as Kyiv rejects Moscow’s refusal to engage in face-to-face peace negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at Downing Street on Sunday to discuss ongoing support for Ukraine and the coordination of security guarantees. The gathering of the E3 leaders occurred against a backdrop of heightened hostilities, including a week of Ukrainian strikes on Russian targets and a Russian drone attack on a nuclear fuel storage facility near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.
The leaders focused their discussions on air defence cooperation and the development of a “coalition of the willing” initiative, led by the UK and France, to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a broader peace process. Zelenskyy emphasised that these measures were essential for the security of all Europe, stating that Ukraine would not “silently die” and would continue to respond to aggression with increasing strength.
The diplomatic engagement followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rejection of Zelenskyy’s proposal for face-to-face peace talks. In an open letter, the first direct public correspondence between the two leaders since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, Zelenskyy criticised Putin’s 26 years in power and noted growing international fatigue with Russia. Putin, speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, dismissed the offer, asserting that Moscow’s war goals remained unchanged and that negotiations were pointless.
Tensions were further inflamed by recent Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on infrastructure in St Petersburg and Crimea. Last week, drones hit an oil terminal and naval port in St Petersburg, followed by attacks on an ammunition dump and oil terminal in nearby Kronstadt on Saturday, which resulted in three minor injuries. Ukrainian special operations forces also released footage of strikes on fuel storage facilities in occupied Crimea and a bridge connecting the peninsula to the Chonhar crossing point, causing severe fuel shortages in the region.
On Sunday night, a Russian drone damaged a storage centre for spent nuclear fuel located nine miles from Chornobyl. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that large amounts of nuclear fuel were stored nearby, but radiation levels remained within normal background limits. Zelenskyy condemned the strike as “extremely vile” and noted the use of an Iranian-designed Shahed drone, while also reporting that four civilians were killed in separate Russian aerial bomb attacks in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet King Charles on Monday as part of his ongoing diplomatic tour.