White House pressured UK to criticise Zelenskyy for spat with Trump, Starmer says

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated that the White House pushed London to make critical remarks about President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Oval Office spat.

Source: Starmer in an interview with The New York Times, as reported by European Pravda

Details: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged that US President Donald Trump’s actions, ranging from imposing a 25% tariff on British steel to criticising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have caused "quite a degree of disorientation". Starmer stressed that the proper response is not to yield to Trump's provocations.

"On the day in which the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskyy didn’t go particularly well, we were under pressure to come out very critically with, you know, flowery adjectives to describe how others felt," Starmer recalls.

"I took the view that it was better to pick up the phone and talk to both sides to try and get them back on the same page," he added.

Starmer sent his national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, to Kyiv to advise Zelenskyy on rebuilding relations with Trump.

Starmer then called Trump to brief him on the progress in Kyiv and prepare for a phone call between the two presidents. Zelenskyy expressed support for Trump's peacekeeping initiatives when the two leaders spoke.

Background: 

• On 28 February, Zelenskyy left the White House ahead of schedule after a spat with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
• After the fallout, Starmer said he trusted Zelenskyy and did not believe he had done anything wrong.
• On 19 March, Zelenskyy and Trump spoke on the phone after the US president held talks with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
• After the conversation, Zelenskyy stated that he and Trump had agreed to discuss the technical details of a partial truce, focusing on a commitment not to target energy and civilian infrastructure.

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