Britain’s prime minister called an “emergency” summit in London following the Oval Office Fiasco to try to convince the world it will not be Europe’s fault, but America’s (Read: Donald Trump’s) when Ukraine collapses, writes Joe Lauria.

Starmer and Zelensky at Lancaster House European Summit on Sunday, March 2, 2025. (Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street/Wikimedia Commons)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
In his speech following the emergency European summit he called in London on Sunday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was prepared to send “boots on the ground” and “planes in the air” to defend Ukraine against the evil madman, Vladimir Putin.
Then Starmer added: but only if the United States joins us.
He said:
“We will go further to develop a ‘coalition of the willing’ to defend a deal in Ukraine…
And to guarantee the peace.
Not every nation will feel able to contribute.
But that can’t mean we sit back.
Instead, those willing will intensify planning now – with real urgency.
The UK is prepared to back this…
With boots on the ground, and planes in the air…
Together with others.
Europe must do the heavy lifting…
But to support peace on our continent.
And to succeed, this effort must have strong US backing.
We’re working with the US on this point, after my meeting with President Trump last week.”
Donald Trump has made it clear he is not going to commit U.S. troops to Ukraine, however. And Russia has said it would never accept Western troops there.
What Starmer is really saying is: Europe stands ready to fight and die as peacekeepers to save Ukraine if necessary, but only with the Americans. So when they refuse to come and the disastrous Project Ukraine at last comes crashing on our heads, don’t blame us, blame the U.S.A.
Trump will become even easier to blame now that he has cut off military aid and intelligence to Ukraine.
[The theater continued on Thursday at another European summit in Brussels, dubbed a “War Summit” by Politico, in which French President Emmanuel Macron, and still German Foreign Minister Alena Baerbock said Europe needed to get ready for war with Russia.]

Two men sharing a laugh on their way out of power: Volodmyr Zelensky and Justin Trudeau at the European Leaders Summit, March 2, 2025 at Lancaster House. Picture (Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street)
The theater piece directed by Starmer at Lancaster House with an assembly of 15 European heads of government (and Justin Trudeau of Canada) was not really choreographed to try to convince Trump to reverse course, which appears unlikely, but as an elaborate presentation to save the hides of politicians who invested so much of their own political capital and wasted so much of their citizens’ money in the inevitable and humiliating defeat of Ukraine.
The summit was called by Starmer within two days of what he and the other Europeans saw transpire in the Oval Office on Friday. [See: Trump, Vance School Zelinsky on Reality of His War]. That occured at the end of a week in which both Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron had paid a visit to the same Oval Office where they learned first hand Trump’s determination to end the war even if it means Ukraine’s defeat.
That Ukraine would lose was obvious two years ago to Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when they both gently broke that news to Zelensky privately in Paris in February 2023.
The private remarks clashed with public statements from European leaders who had routinely said then, and still say today, that they will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes to achieve victory on the battlefield. That was Joe Biden’s line too.
The Wall Street Journal, which reported on the private remarks to Zelenksy two years ago, wrote:
“The public rhetoric masks deepening private doubts among politicians in the U.K., France and Germany that Ukraine will be able to expel the Russians from eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014, and a belief that the West can only help sustain the war effort for so long, especially if the conflict settles into a stalemate, officials from the three countries say.
‘We keep repeating that Russia mustn’t win, but what does that mean? If the war goes on for long enough with this intensity, Ukraine’s losses will become unbearable,’ a senior French official said. ‘And no one believes they will be able to retrieve Crimea.'”
Indeed Ukraine’s losses have become unbearable. Macron and Scholz tried to tell Zelensky at that Élysée Palace dinner in February 2023 that he must consider peace talks with Moscow, the Journal reported.

Zelensky, Starmer and Macron at Lancaster House March 2, 2025. (Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street)
According to its source, the newspaper quoted Macron as telling Zelensky that “even mortal enemies like France and Germany had to make peace after World War II.”
Macron told Zelensky “he had been a great war leader, but that he would eventually have to shift into political statesmanship and make difficult decisions,” the newspaper reported.
One wonders then why Scholz and Macron and the rest of Europe have persisted in fueling a lost cause that has since chewed up tens of thousands of additional Ukrainian lives. Could they be so corrupt that the survival of their political careers was worth the carnage of another nation’s men?
Could they have been as corrupted as Antony Blinken, who insisted to the end of his time as U.S. secretary of state that Ukraine lower the conscription age to 18, even though he knew these youth would be sent to certain death? Have Western leaders not understood that the only chance Ukraine had to win the war was with NATO’S direct participation, risking a nuclear holocaust ?
It seems that U.S. and European leaders kept an unwinnable war going until now to save their own careers. They could never admit defeat. But it did not save Biden or Harris or Blinken or Scholz or Trudeau, and Macron is in trouble too as voters saw through them all.
They’d all staked too much on the outcome of the war. They allowed their economies to fall. They pushed government censorship of social and alternative media to hide criticism that they were allowing men to die so that they would not be accused of “losing Ukraine.”
It’s been a cornerstone of history from ancient emperors to Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in Vietnam, and now Biden and Starmer in Ukraine: Let them die so that we may stay in office.
With defeat staring them in the face, who better to blame it on than the ogre, Donald Trump, who has dared to inject realism into the twisted dream of using Ukraine to weaken and defeat Russia.
It’s a failed policy that the European and Ukrainian leaders desperately need to keep going. One way to attempt this, as Chicago University professor John Mearsheimer said, is for the British, French and Ukrainians to “trap” the United States into giving a “security guarantee” to Ukraine.
Language in the mineral deal Zelensky had gone to the U.S. on Friday to sign calls for “common protection of critical resources.” Mearsheimer told a TV network in India that that is “the way they are trying to trap Trump and Co., and Trump won’t be trapped.”
This became evident in the Oval Office dust up last Friday when Trump angrily rejected Zelensky’s insistence on a U.S. “security guarantee” before he’d agree to a ceasefire and sign the mineral agreement. [See: Trump, Vance School Zelensky on Reality of His War]
The only way to keep their war going is to cajole Trump into getting the U.S. deeper into the morass, rather than wisely pulling out and pushing for a deal to end it.
As much as they might despise Trump, Starmer’s Sunday performance was designed to suck up to him. And an ungrateful Zelensky, reconsidering his public feud with Trump, is trying to make up with a man that seems susceptible to flattery.

Donald Trump addressing a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2024. (President Donald Trump/Wikimedia Commons)
In his address to the U.S. Congress Tuesday night, Trump said:
“Earlier today I received an important letter from President Zelensky of Ukraine. The letter reads: ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.’
‘Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,’ he said. ‘My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. … We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine, maintain its sovereignty and independence. … Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time.’
That is convenient for you. I appreciate that he sent this letter. I just got it a little while ago. Simultaneously we’ve had serious discussions with Russia. Then I’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful? Wouldn’t that be beautiful?
Wouldn’t that be beautiful?
It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end the senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”
Desperate Europeans and Ukrainians need Trump to keep their war and thus their careers going, perhaps none more so than Zelensky.
Will Trump stand firm, or will he succumb to a trap?
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
I did not vote for the king of the dumpster fire BTW and I Tried To Tell anyone who was willing to listen.
Stramer sounds like a cross between trump and biden. We will see how long his BS lasts. Especially once his countrymen see the fix Exceptional Americans have gotten themselves into.
Hopefully MAGATs are about to discover what the pre-maga movement really meant by Tea Bagging, because many of them may be first in line.
Enjoy the show.
NATO troops in the Ukraine will never happen.
The Russians know that NATO would conduct a subterfuge holding operation whilst re-equipping the UKR Miltary to start another offensive operation in a continuation of its egregious use of Ukrainians to destroy Russia.
NATO’S role was always to project US lead Western Power and since the Soviet Union collapse and Western victory, to replace the UN’s peacekeepers with their own version World Military rulers.
With a Trump USA , a new Geo Political reset would seem to be put in place, where NATO’s existence may be challenged.
Unlikely, but time will tell whether this is just a ruse or has substance.
One thing for certain Russia will not be in a hurry to make any deals until its objectives are met.This may have a way to run before we get clarity.
In the meantime we are witnessing the European Vassls in shambles as their Master of Deals weaves his web. Who knows what his end game is ? They sure dont, maybe he doesn’t either
The EU is talking about placing 5 brigades into Ukraine. Moon of Alabama has pointed out that Ukraine has already used 100 brigades and the Russians have about 200. So the EU contribution is a token piffle. Once they realize they will lose inside Ukraine the temptation is for Western forces to use javelin missiles and fighter aircraft inside Russia which will be seen as a direct NATO attack and Russia will conduct missile counterattacks on EU military targets. The only escalation left is nuclear. The other ingredient is that Zelensky would like nothing better than to initiate attacks inside Russia prompting Russian responses. Under a US security guarantee he could then demand the US send US troops to fight Zelensky’s already lost war. Talk about the tail wagging the dog. Trump rightly told him to take a hike.
The “minerals deal” is what will trap Trump in Ukraine. The implication is that having US companies mining Ukraine’s minerals will deter Russia from more aggression. One has to question whether Russia will even allow that. Contrast Trump’s lust to mine those $500 Billion with Russia’s three main, nonnegotiable goals: 1) demilitarization of Ukraine, 2) denazification of Ukraine, and 3) a completely neutral Ukraine… If the US sets up camp in Ukraine with “the deal,” Russia loses face, respect, and the war. I just don’t see that happening.
An excellent reply by Regis. See also response of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov .
There is a reason why “peace talks” usually take a long time. The losing side is usually delusional about what it is going to cost them. The losers put forward proposals that seem ok to the losers, only to have the victors reject them while trying hard not to laugh. The thing about wars is that even winning them has a cost, and by the time the war is won, the victor wants something in return for the costs they’ve paid. The losers never recognize this, and usually offer something even less than what they should have offered to keep the war from happening in the first place.
Peace talks are usually long and slow. My childhood was years of TV sets giving the news of the latest round of US-Vietnam peace talks from Paris. Determining the shape of the table is usually a slow step, and so far its still under debate if this is two sides talking across a long table or more people around a triangular or square table.
America is still delusional about what Russia is going to require. Russia is sitting quietly and willing to talk. But Russia is also winning the war every day while the talks continue. The talks will end when America is no longer delusional, which from recent experience is hard to even foresee as it is hard to remember a time when America has not been delusional. The last President I would have said that about just died at age 100. He was also the last American President who could sit credibly at a peace table.
I don’t care who gets the blame — or rather, the credit — as long as the arming and support for Ukraine can be stopped.
I agree.
My fear is that Trump, who in his own mind is a master deal-maker, will prioritize getting the minerals deal over ending the war. The man is so erratic that it can be hard to know what he will do next.
Would he have survived politically all those assaults over almost ten years now if he really was that erratic…? Or is he rather using this feigned erraticness as a tool to outmanouver opponents and critics?
The whole dance as been odd. Never been quite sure how serious Trumpy Dumpy was about the deal. It seemed like he offered Kiev a bad deal, which was at first rejected. Then, Kiev decided to take it, and sent Sir Stormer over to Trumpy Dumpy to beg for an audience. Then der Comic Fuhrer flew over quickly to sign the deal. Seemingly under the impression that this would give Kiev a back-door security guarantee that they couldn’t even get from the Naked Emperor in His New Clothes.
But, given that Vance of Theil was a big part of killing the deal, and given that a Trumpy apprentice would never dare to scuttle a deal that the Boss wanted and was proud of, I’m not sure that Trumpy Dumpy ever really wanted the deal. He may have been just playing to see how desperate der Comic Fuhrer had become. And in the end, the whole thing looked like a setup to get der Comic Fuhrer out of power in Kiev. Der Comic Fuhrer, having no real experience with negotiations or deals beyond his begging cup, was badly manipulated and outplayed by der Real Estate Fuhrer who overestimates his own experience.
It was Zelensky that first proposed the minerals deal to rope U.S. security into it. Trump did not propose this deal so the premise of the comment is incorrect. If you watch the entire 50+ minute Oval Office encounter it does not look like a set up at all but a reaction to Zelensky’s combative behavior.
America has supported the war for its own benefit of course (or the benefit of those with power), whether that is to weaken Russia, gain Ukrainian resources, line pockets of weapons manufacturers or even to weaken Europe (and sell them gas).
European leaders have also acted consistently in self interest. Germany would ideally retain access to Russian gas and markets. The war is not directly benefiting them at all, their economy is tanked and -America allowing -they would indeed push peace as per that 2023 meeting. However that would have been a conflict of interest with America, the boss, and ultimately Germany’s self interest did not entail some attempt to buck or leave its place in America’s coterie. This is even more true of France and more still of the UK who wouldn’t have questioned for a minute staying at America’s side.
So we don’t need the careers of their leaders to explain why European countries stuck with thr Ukraine project despite their 2023 statements. The cost wasn’t directly theirs and the (not insubstantial) indirect costs were outweighed or on the case of nordstream, a fait acompli they had to swallow.
Of course they now have just the same requirements for theatre as the article describes, whatever their previous motivation for backing the previous Ukraine narrative
Thank You Joe
The Uke cheerleaders have egg all over their faces. Many of them actually believed Uke troops would eventually march on Moscow — what a laugher! The cog-dis these war whores should now be suffering should leave them bedridden for days. Putin and Russia rule the day, they call the shots. Thankfully.
Of course, the NAFO shills and their foolish followers will merely blame the Trump regime for all this, they’ll swear Kiev was on the verge of victory before Trump pulled the plug. These fools don’t know when to quit.
The Washington-Zio-militarist empire (“NATO”) has been defeated in their insanely dangerous and imbecilic proxy war. Trump’s main job is to somehow manage this loss, somehow put a spin on it so certain players can save some face.
The Kremlin’s intervention in Donbas will be remembered as a master class in waging a special military operation that not only completed its objective but did its utmost to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians anywhere near the battlefields.
The task at hand now is to ready a few prison cells ready for Nuland, Blinken, and Sullivan. Add other demented sick players to this list, you know who they are.
Thank you. You are quite correct. The warmonger neocons all belong in prison.
This isn’t theatre, it’s cheap 4th rate vaudeville. Slapstick, pantomime, juggling, and song and dance routines. Not even amusing.
In the CIA’s official response to Trump’s address to Congress, they did indeed appear to begin to blame Trump for the fact that their war may not continue. I am referring to the speech by Agent Slotkin.