Zelenskyy meets with UK leader Starmer as Europe braces for the Trump-Putin summit

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to London on Thursday in a show of British support for Ukraine a day before a critical U.S.-Russia summit is set to take place in Alaska.

The two 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 that Trump had assured them that 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.

Both Zelenskyy and the Europeans have worried that the bilateral U.S.-Russia summit would leave them and their interests sidelined, and that any conclusions reached could favor Moscow and leave Ukraine and Europe’s future security in jeopardy.

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 doesn't agree to stop the war against Ukraine after Friday's meeting.

Territorial integrity

The Kremlin on Thursday said that the meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska will start at 11:30 a.m. local time. Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters that Trump and Putin will first sit down for a one-on-one meeting followed by a meeting between the two delegations, and then talks will continue over “a working breakfast.”

Putin on Thursday held a meeting with top government officials on the upcoming summit. In a video released by the Kremlin, he said that the Trump administration was making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities” and to “reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”

Putin also suggested that agreements could be reached with the U.S. on nuclear arms control.

Starmer said on Wednesday that the Alaska summit could be a path to a ceasefire in Ukraine, but also alluded to European concerns that Trump may strike a deal that forces Ukraine to cede territory to Russia. He warned that Western allies must be prepared to step up pressure on Russia if necessary.

During a call on 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 ceasefire deal must protect the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine.

“International borders cannot be, and must not be changed by force,’’ he said.

Macron: Trump willing to share in security guarantees

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 that Trump told the assembled leaders that while NATO mustn't 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 didn't reference any U.S. commitments to providing security guarantees during his comments to reporters on Wednesday.

Some Ukrainians skeptical

With another high-level meeting on their country's future on the horizon, some Ukrainians expressed skepticism that any breakthroughs would be achieved during Friday's U.S.-Russia summit.

Oleksandra Kozlova, 39, who works at a digital agency in Kyiv, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she believes Ukrainians “have already lost hope” that meaningful progress can be made on ending the nearly 3½-year-old war.

“I don’t think this round will be decisive,” she said. “There have already been enough meetings and negotiations promising us, ordinary people, that something will be resolved, that things will get better, that the war will end. Unfortunately, this has not happened, so personally I don’t see any changes coming.”

Anton Vyshniak, a car salesman in Kyiv, said that Ukraine's priority now should be saving the lives of its military service members, even at the expense of making territorial concessions.

“At the moment, the most important thing is to preserve the lives of male and female military personnel. After all, there are not many human resources left,” he said. “Borders are borders, but human lives are priceless. Therefore, some principles can be disregarded here.”

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes

Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Ukraine had secured the release of 84 people from Russian captivity, including both soldiers and civilians.

“Almost all of them need medical care and significant rehabilitation,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, adding that those freed included people held by Russia since 2014, 2016 and 2017, as well as soldiers who had defended the now Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that it too had received 84 soldiers as part of a prisoner of war exchange.

Russian strikes in Ukraine’s Sumy region overnight Wednesday resulted in numerous injuries, Ukrainian regional officials said. A missile strike on a village in the Seredyna-Budska community wounded a 7-year-old girl and a 27-year-old man, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhorov. The girl was hospitalized in stable condition.

In the southern Kherson region, Russian artillery fire struck the village of Molodizhne on Thursday morning, wounding a 16-year-old boy, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

In Russia, a Ukrainian drone attack damaged several apartment buildings in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don near the border with Ukraine where 13 civilians were wounded, according to acting governor of the region Yuri Slyusar. Two of the wounded were hospitalized in serious condition, Slyusar said.

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Lorne Cook in Brussels, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine