From The Times today, not enough but hopefully the start of recognition that russia is already on a war footing:
Starmer to overrule Reeves and boost spending on defence
PM seeks to seize the initiative as he prepares to fly to Washington to meet Trump
Tim Shipman, Chief Political Commentator | Harry Yorke, Deputy Political Editor
Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to overrule Rachel Reeves and raise British defence spending after a dramatic security summit in Munich at the weekend when the US piled pressure on Ukraine to strike a peace deal with Russia.
The prime minister is due to fly to Washington to see President Trump next week, and an announcement is due as early as tomorrow, sources revealed.
Allies of Starmer sought to seize the initiative after a week in which Trump shocked world leaders by announcing that he had begun discussions with President Putinn_ about a deal.
Speaking on Saturday night, the prime minister said it was a “once in a generation moment” for the UK, the US and Europe to work together, as he warned against divisions in Nato.
He said: “It's clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato.
We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face.”
Earlier on Saturday, Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, in effect confirmed that European allies would be excluded from the Ukraine peace deal talks, stating that he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”. He also claimed Russia might have to cede territory in any peace deal and there was a need to target its oil revenues to force Moscow to reach a compromise.
At the Munich security conference yesterday, President Zelensky called for the creation of a European armyy_ at a time of growing fears in Kyiv that Trump and his team would enforce a pro-Putin settlement. The Ukrainian president had insisted on European involvement in the talks.
Other developments:
• This week Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will begin peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Saudi Arabia.
• The US is demanding a total of $500 billion of rare earth minerals half of Ukraine's reserves in return for continuing to provide military aid to Kyiv.
• Britain joined G7 leaders in threatening Russia with further sanctions after this month unless it entered into peace talks “in good faith”
• They backed giving Ukraine “robust security guarantees” and maintaining its “freedom, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”.
• David Lammy, the foreign secretary, said Ukraine's future was an “existential question” for Europe and warned that the cost of failure would dwarf maintaining financial support for Kyiv.
• Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, declared that the 30-year “peace dividend” that Europe had enjoyed since the end of the Cold War was “over”.
Downing Street signalled support for higher defence spending after Starmer held one-to-one meetings at
the Ministry of Defence on Friday with Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, and the respective heads of the army, RAF and Royal Navy. They are calling for him to raise the spending to 2.65 per cent of GDP, above Labour's target.
Labour has yet to set a timetable for defence spending to hit 2.5 per cent, and on Friday a senior Treasury source insisted Reeves was not yet willing to hand over more than 2.3 per cent in the spending review this year. Hitting 2.5 per cent would add £5 billion to the MoD budget and reaching 2.65 per cent would cost £10 billion.
But in a shot across the chancellor's bows, an ally of Starmer made clear that he, not Reeves, would be making the decision and indicated that Trump's approach meant spending more was inevitable.
The source said: “In the end, it's the prime minister's decision on national security. This one does sit with the PM. We know we have to set out when we're getting to 2.5 per cent. The defence and security review will still do what we needed to do.”
Service chiefs are increasingly concerned about the progress of the strategic defence revieww_, which is due to be published by the middle of this year. It is being led by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former defence secretary and Nato secretary-general, and Sir Richard Barrons, a retired general.
Defence sources have told The Sunday Times that Robertson's team have made many changes to their original blueprint and in recent days submitted their fourth draft. One said the review was now at risk of becoming a “mess”, adding: “They [the service chiefs] have not really meaningfully been consulted.”
MoD sources do not deny disagreements but insist there are no tensions.
Lammy and his team spent yesterday helping to persuade the Americans to sign up to the G7 statement, which gave greater support to Ukraine than Trump's team had done last week.
The US commitment to Ukrainian sovereignty was seized on by Boris Johnson, who has had conversations with Trump about Ukraine, and who said Kyiv should be allowed to join Nato if it wished.
He said: “The United States under Donald Trump is committed to a sovereign Ukraine. A sovereign country cannot be constrained in choosing which organisations it wishes to join. Ukraine is entirely sensible in wanting to join Natoo_. That process is a matter for Ukraine and Nato. It is absolutely nothing to do with Putin or Russia.”
In a warning to Trump, he added: “I am afraid that attempts to negotiate on this point with Vladimir Putin are completely wrong in principle. They are also doomed. Putin's demands will prove impossible to satisfy. Washington wants a sovereign Ukraine. Putin wants a vassal state. This is binary. It is time for the Europeans with Britain in the lead to get serious, listen to what Trump is saying and step up our military support for Ukraine.”