In recent weeks, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has demonstrated he wants to have influence in the debate on European security, which has accelerated dramatically since Washington opened discussions with Moscow to end the conflict in Ukraine.

"We are at a crossroads in history," he warned on Sunday, March 2, at the conclusion of the summit he chaired in London, which was attended by a dozen other leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The meeting had been convened by Downing Street a week earlier, but it took on a dramatic turn following the humiliation inflicted on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, in the Oval Office of the White House on Friday.

Faced with the American duo brutally attacking a leader they consider a hero, Europeans now find themselves in urgent need of salvaging what remains of the relationship between Washington and Kyiv – and, beyond that, the Western order guaranteed by the United States for the past 80 years. From London, Starmer explained that the United Kingdom was working with France on a peace plan for Ukraine to "stop the fighting," a plan the two leaders intend to discuss with the US, as hinted at during their respective visits to Washington last week.

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