PM has ‘no plans’ to speak to Putin as he puts Ukraine top of G20 summit agenda

Sir Keir Starmer is heading to the G20 summit in Brazil.

Sir Keir Starmer works on board a Government plane as he travels to Brazil to attend the G20 summit — Sir Keir Starmer wants to shore up further support for Ukraine (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Sir Keir Starmer has “no plans” to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he said “we need to double down” on support for Ukraine with the conflict approaching its 1,000th day.

The Prime Minister pledged that Ukraine was “top” of his agenda at this week’s G20 summit of world leaders and told reporters that “there’s got to be full support as long as it takes”.

There has been concern about the level of support the US may continue to give Ukraine when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

In a major policy shift, President Joe Biden has authorised the use of US-supplied long-range missiles by Ukraine to strike inside Russia for the first time, AP reported, citing a US official and three people familiar with the matter.

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Mr Putin on what was the Russian leader’s first publicly announced conversation with the sitting head of a major western power in nearly two years.

Asked if he had any plans to make a similar call, Sir Keir said: “It’s a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to. I have no plans to speak to Putin.”

Speaking to reporters on the way to the G20 summit in Brazil, the Prime Minister added: “We are coming up to the 1,000th day of this conflict on Tuesday.

“That’s 1,000 days of Russian aggression, 1,000 days of huge impact and sacrifice in relation to the Ukrainian people and recently we’ve seen the addition of North Korean troops working with Russians which does have serious implications.

Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack on Ukraine (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

“I think on one hand it shows the desperation of Russia, bit it’s got serious implications for European security […] and for Indo-Pacific security and that’s why I think we need to double down on shoring up our support for Ukraine and that’s top of my agenda for the G20.

“There’s got to be full support as long as it takes and that certainly is top of my agenda, shoring up that further support for Ukraine.”

It comes after Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine on Sunday, with President Volodymyr Zelensky claiming that Russia had launched a total of 120 missiles and 90 drones.