British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of the U.K.'s support for Ukraine a day before a critical U.S.-Russia summit is set to take place in Alaska. The situation between Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and the European Union hits home for Yaryna Zhurba. The Huntsville resident has family living in the Ukrainian city of Solochiv, near the border with Poland.
Donald Trump is preparing to meet with Vladmir Putin tomorrow in Alaska. The subject is a possible ceasefire in Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine. One resident of Huntsville knows first-hand about the toll the conflict has taken on her nation. Zhurba has family still living in Ukraine. She says there will never be a time when the people of her country forget the impact of the war with Russia.
“That will never be possible, that war changed us so big. You know, many families losses, lost their loved ones, like my auntie,” said Zhurba. “I recently was looking at the pictures. You know, we had this like two like more people in other family are fighting. But my auntie son, he was 30 years old only he died in war, and he has second son is now fighting.”
Zhurba will be a guest on the upcoming episode of “APR Notebook” on Alabama Public Radio. She co-founded a company called Ukrainian Puzzles which manufactures jigsaw puzzles in Ukraine’s publishing center of Kharkiv. Each kit depicts a cultural heritage site damage or destroyed during the conflict with Russia. Part of the proceeds of each puzzle is used for reconstruction in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Vladimir Putin embraced warmly outside Starmer’s offices at 10 Downing Street without making any comments. Around an hour later, Starmer walked Zelenskyy back to his waiting car, and the two leaders shared another embrace as the Ukrainian president departed.
Zelenskyy's trip to the British capital came a day after he took part in virtual meetings from Berlin with U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of several European countries. Those leaders said Trump had assured them he would make a priority of trying to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Anchorage.
Yaryna Zhurba has family still living in Ukraine and visits there often. She says she has cousins who are serving in the army and who’ve been killed in action. Zhurba says any peace plan with Russia has to include future security of her nation…
“It's just, and we will live side by side with Russia,” she said. It's where we located. It just, we need to be strong enough and to have such a strong army and and weapons that we to be sure they don't invade us again.
Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined. They fear that any conclusions reached could favor Moscow, leaving Ukraine and Europe's future security in jeopardy with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in its fourth year.
Yet some of those leaders, like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, praised Wednesday's video conference with Trump as constructive. Speaking after the meetings to reporters, Trump warned of “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin does not agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday's meeting.
The Kremlin on Thursday said the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska will start at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting. Aside from Putin, the Russian delegation will include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Kirill Dmitriev.
Following the meetings between Trump and Putin and their delegations, the two leaders will hold a joint press conference, Ushakov said. Starmer on Wednesday said the Alaska summit would be “hugely important,” and could be a “viable” path to a ceasefire in Ukraine. But he also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, and warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.
During a call Wednesday among leaders of countries involved in the “coalition of the willing” — those who are prepared to help police any future peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv — Starmer stressed that any deal reached on bringing the fighting to an end must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.
“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said, adding that robust security guarantees must accompany any ceasefire to "ensure that any peace, if there is peace, is lasting peace and Ukraine can defend its territorial integrity.”
Kyiv has long insisted that safeguards against future Russian attacks provided by its Western allies would be a precondition for achieving a durable end to the fighting in Ukraine. Yet many Western governments have been hesitant to commit to engaging their military personnel.
Countries in the “coalition of the willing,” which include France and the U.K., have been trying for months to secure U.S. security backing should it be required.
Following Wednesday's virtual meetings, Macron said Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO must not be part of future security guarantees, “the United States and all the parties involved should take part.”
“It’s a very important clarification that we have received,” Macron said.
Trump did not reference any U.S. commitments to providing security guarantees during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.
