Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer arrives to hold crunch talks with Donald Trump in Washington DC on Thursday (27 February).

The UK Prime Minister is visiting Washington to push reluctant Donald Trump to provide a US “backstop” to prevent Vladimir Putin launching a fresh assault on Ukraine after any peace deal.

Sir Keir is prepared to commit British troops to a peacekeeping mission but believes that US promises are vital to “deter Putin from coming again”.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky will also visit Washington to sign a deal on rare earth minerals on Friday – but warned that security guarantees remain to be decided as part of the framework economic deal.

The US will get “a lot of money” back from Ukraine under the deal, Donald Trump said on Wednesday, but signalled a refusal to provide minimal security guarantees to Kyiv in return.


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Keir Starmer holds crunch talks with Donald Trump in Washington DC