Keir Starmer’s 4-point Ceasefire plan

Day by day the blindness and obtuseness of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and of his French comrade President Emmanuel Macron reach new and unimaginable heights.

This is perfectly clear from this morning’s Financial Times’ extensive report on the outcome of the meeting of 19 European leaders that Starmer convened in London on Sunday.

Understanding that Zelensky is his own worst enemy in dealing with the new administration in Washington, Starmer and Macron have decided to speak to Trump on Ukraine’s behalf. They are proposing a one-month Cease Fire that will cover hostile actions in the air, sea and relating to energy infrastructure. They do not propose to watch the 1000 km long battlefront, presumably because that is beyond their capabilities.

Putting aside the question about whether such a limited truce makes any sense on its own, they propose to enforce it by sending ‘boots on the ground’ from a still unspecified ‘coalition of the willing’ which their own armies would lead.

Here it is stunning that they are not listening to the flat refusal of President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov in their public statements of the past week to allow any stationing of foreign troops in Ukraine as guarantors of security. The very notion of NATO member countries having troops in Ukraine goes directly against the reasons for going to war that Russia announced back in February 2022.  Again, if Starmer and Macron had been paying attention, they also would have heard the Russians saying that such troops would be considered as co-belligerents and would be targeted for destruction, likely with tactical nuclear weapons.  Anybody listening out there in London?

But then again, Macron and Starmer are not listening to Washington either. They said yesterday that they require the US to provide air cover for the troops in their ‘coalition of the willing’ though last Friday Donald Trump made it perfectly clear that the USA will not provide any security guaranties to a peace in Ukraine.

You have to wonder what world Starmer, Macron and the other fools who gathered in London yesterday may be living in.  It is certainly not the one you, dear reader, and I share.

As regards Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky, who was guest of honor at the gathering in London, he had a session with reporters at the conclusion of the talks and just before he flew back to Kiev. This was covered very nicely by the BBC television news this morning, including the lengthy question from their reporter on whether Zelensky was prepared to do what Team Trump had demanded on Friday and to make a full apology to the American president.  Zelensky gave a rambling answer in line with the boorish remarks he delivered in the Oval Office. He said that the much-awaited deal on rare earth was still ready for signing, but quietly added that it had to include a U.S. security guaranty for his country after the war.  Very good, but such a guaranty was explicitly refused by Trump.

It is hard to imagine that any of these state actors will remain on the stage for more than a few months to come. Their mediocrity, nay, their rank stupidity would go unnoticed in ordinary times. But these are not ordinary times.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2025