Within the instant hours after these astonishing exchanges between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky within the White Home, European leaders, one after one other, supplied their public help for Ukraine.
However the prime minister remained silent.
Then, as I dashed into the studio for the NEWSTORN Information at Ten, my telephone went.
I had been despatched a assertion from No 10: Sir Keir Starmer had spoken to them each and the prime minister “retains unwavering help for Ukraine and is doing all he can to discover a path ahead to a long-lasting peace”.
Friday afternoon within the White Home had not solely totally upended in essentially the most spectacular style the connection between two allies – America and Ukraine – however the diplomacy of latest days too, with the visits of President Emmanuel Macron of France after which the prime minister to the White Home.
Simply 24 hours earlier than Volodymyr Zelensky’s go to to the Oval Workplace, I had stood there in the identical room witnessing Trump and Sir Keir’s heat and bonhomie: what a distinction to what was to come back subsequent.
Sir Keir, like Emmanuel Macron earlier than him, had sought to ingratiate himself with the wildly unpredictable American president, satisfied that was the pragmatic plan of action.
Now the prime minister confronts a state of affairs the place two of the UK’s allies are at loggerheads in essentially the most public and offended manner.
Sources are tight-lipped in regards to the exact nature of the 2 telephone calls Sir Keir made on Friday evening, very conscious of the acute sensitivities of this delicate state of affairs.
However the UK’s diplomatic efforts in latest weeks at the least allowed these calls to be potential, permitting the UK to aim to behave as a bridge between each Kyiv and Washington, and Washington and Europe.
It comes, although, at some political value. The federal government’s home critics such because the Scottish Nationwide Occasion argue that the invitation for Donald Trump to come back to the UK on a second state go to must be rescinded.
Sunday’s summit of European leaders in London, hosted by the prime minister and attended by President Zelensky, was already shaping as much as be essential. It has now taken on additional significance.
To present you a way of that, Commerce Minister Douglas Alexander instructed NEWSTORN Radio 4’s Any Questions that not solely have been the scenes within the Oval Workplace “deeply troubling and sobering” however demonstrated “within the starkest potential phrases” the extent to which “the world we have all skilled for the final 80 years” had modified, including we that have been in “uncharted waters”.
He additionally referred to as President Zelensky the “bravest political chief in Europe since Winston Churchill”.
And the European Union’s high diplomat, Kaja Kallas, stated that it had “turn into clear that the free world wants a brand new chief. It’s as much as us, Europeans, to take this problem.”
However that’s the crux of this. Is Europe able to that?
On the coronary heart of the UK and others’ request of America is that the White Home gives a safety assure to Ukraine beneath any peace deal.
The UK desires that to quantity to air cowl. This is able to be a giant ask of any president at any time, with the hazard of battle escalating with Russia.
However it’s a colossal ask of a president who has made it abundantly clear he has no urge for food in any respect for American international navy adventures.
Which brings us to this weekend and President Zelensky becoming a member of his European allies within the UK.
There’s a colossal quantity at stake.
