Military chiefs to meet Thursday in UK on Ukraine peacekeeping force: PM

LONDON - British Prime Minister KeirStarmer on Saturday said military chiefs would meet in the UK on Thursday to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine to protect any eventual ceasefire.

"We agreed to accelerate our practical work to support a potential deal, so we will now move into an operational phase," Starmer said after hosting a virtual meeting of some 25 fellow leaders.

In a statement released by Starmer's Downing Street office, he added: "We agreed that now the ball was in Russia's court."

"President Putin must prove he is serious about peace, and sign up to a ceasefire on equal terms. The Kremlin's dithering and delay over President Trump's ceasefire proposal, and Russia's continued barbaric attacks on Ukraine, run entirely counter to President Putin's stated desire for peace."

The British leader told some 26 fellow leaders as they joined the group call hosted by Downing Street that they should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any ceasefire and keep up the pressure on Moscow.

While Ukraine had shown it was the "party of peace" by agreeing to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, "Putin is the one trying to delay," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskywarned that Russia wanted to achieve a "stronger position" militarily ahead of any ceasefire, more than three years since it invaded his country. 

"They want to improve their situation on the battlefield," Zelensky told a Kyiv press conference. 

The ceasefire proposal by Trump's team comes as Russia has momentum in many areas of the front in Ukraine. 

The Russian leader did not commit to an immediate ceasefire proposed by the US, instead listing a string of demands. 

But Zelensky said that Putin is "lying about how a ceasefire is supposedly too complicated."

'Just and lasting peace' 

EU chief European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a message on X that Russia has to show "it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace".

Overnight fighting continued in the relentless three-year war, with Russia saying it had taken two more villages in its Kursk border region where it has launched an offensive to wrest back seized territory.

As moves have gathered pace for a ceasefire, Moscow has pushed this week to retake a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in western Kursk. 

But Zelensky denied any "encirclement" of his troops in the Kursk region.

"Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region," he said on social media.

The Russian defence ministry said troops took control over the villages of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina -- north and west of the town of Sudzha, the main town that Moscow reclaimed this week.