UK's Starmer says military talks focus on details for Ukraine support

By Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Western military talks on Thursday would focus on the details of a support plan for Ukraine, a crucial step in making sure the West could move quickly if a peace deal were struck between Kyiv and Moscow.

The meeting of military planners from the so-called 'coalition of the willing' group of Western countries is the second such meeting since U.S. President Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Starmer, who has seen a rise in his popularity since taking a leading role in organising Western support for Ukraine alongside France, said the talks would focus on "military planning, military operations" to support Ukraine.

"Today those plans are focusing on keeping the skies safe, the seas safe and the borders safe and secure in Ukraine," Starmer told reporters.

"Now we're working at pace because we don't know if there'll be a deal, I certainly hope there will be, but if there's a deal, it's really important that we're able to react straight away."

Earlier, his spokesperson said more than 25 countries were involved in the meeting, in person or remotely, and they would be discussing "the granular detail" of peace proposals, not only peacekeepers but how to possibly backfill those countries providing troops or military hardware, and other logistics.

"They are going to get into the detail," the spokesperson told reporters.

The meeting builds on several meetings of the 'coalition of the willing', which on Saturday agreed to put more pressure on Putin to accept an initial ceasefire deal without conditions as a prelude to a wider peace agreement.

U.S. BACKSTOP?

While Russia welcomed the ceasefire proposal in principle, it also set conditions that essentially restate its war aims and Moscow has repeatedly rejected the idea of soldiers from nations in the NATO military alliance being stationed in Ukraine.

Thursday's talks are choreographed to show that Europe is moving on providing Ukraine security guarantees in the event of peace, but much of the military planning depends on Trump agreeing to some kind of U.S. backstop for the peace plans.

So far, Trump has yet to offer such a backstop, arguing a minerals deal with Ukraine meant U.S. personnel would be in the country, deterring Putin from any further attacks.

Starmer's spokesperson said talks about a backstop with Washington were ongoing.

Earlier, Starmer was pictured aboard a submarine in a rare showcasing of the country's nuclear deterrent, filmed earlier this week in footage only released on Thursday.

It showed Starmer meeting submariners returning from a months-long patrol at sea - the first time a British prime minister has done so in more than a decade.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper; additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, editing by William James and Gareth Jones)