'A crossroads in history': Starmer ‘sure-footed’ after Zelensky’s ‘ugly’ Oval Office clash
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From a vicious clash in the Oval Office to a summit of world leaders in London, the past few days saw huge moments in global politics, but will there be a positive outcome from the events of the past few days?
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In brief…
- Presidents Trump and Zelensky clashed during a meeting at The White House, in a show described by The News Agents as “ugly” and “disgraceful”.
- It was followed by a less volatile meeting of world leaders in London, where Keir Starmer pledged the full support of the UK to Ukraine’s war effort, which Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall believe showed him at his strongest since becoming Prime Minister in July 2024.
- The apparent goal is to demonstrate that Europe has the unity and strength to act as a deterrent against Russia, without the US, in order to persuade Vladimir Putin to engage in talks to end his illegal invasion of Ukraine.
What’s the story?
It was a wild weekend in the world of politics.
As most people were clocking off on Friday evening, Donald Trump and JD Vance were yelling at President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in front of the world’s media, while a right-wing reporter grilled the Ukrainian leader on why he hadn’t worn a suit to meet with the US president.
Zelensky replied saying he would wear a “costume” when Russia's invasion ended, having worn suits before the war, and seen only in military gear since the conflict began.
He received a warmer welcome in the UK when he attended a summit in London alongside 18 other world leaders, including those from France, Germany and Canada, to discuss a new plan for peace in Ukraine.
On top of a £2.26 billion loan to Ukraine made on Saturday (1 March 2025), Starmer also pledged an additional £1.6 billion of UK finance for 5,000 air-defence missiles. These will be built in Belfast, adding an additional promise of creating new jobs in the city to meet this demand.
The £2.26 billion loan will be repaid through frozen Russian assets, Starmer confirmed. European countries are believed to have control of more than $300 billion (£236.75bn) in Russian money, but can only access the annual income from this amount, estimated at around $3.2 billion (£2.53bn)
And while the US was absent from the summit, its presence loomed large, with Starmer saying that the UK and France would develop a peace plan, which they would then present to the US, hoping to secure support through the ‘special relationship’ between the countries.
It followed Starmer’s own visit to The White House, where he presented Trump with an invitation to the UK for a historic second state visit from King Charles, and where Trump appeared to hint that the UK would be exempt from tariffs in a future trade deal.
Zelensky beat Trump to the King during his UK visit, however, as he visited Sandringham in a pre-planned meeting whilst visiting the UK.
What happened when Zelensky visited the UK?
"The UK is prepared to back this with boots on the ground and planes in the air," Keir Starmer said during the summit, as he affirmed a previous promise to send British soldiers to Ukraine as peacekeepers once Russia has pulled its troops.
Between February 2022 and January 2025 the UK sent £12.8 billion to Ukraine in aid.
"Together with others, Europe must do the heavy-lifting to support peace in our continent and to succeed, this effort must have strong US backing. We're working with the US on this point,” the PM added.
Lewis Goodall says he continues to play the role of an intermediary between Europe and the US as relationships deteriorate between Zelensky and Trump.
"He's trying to persuade both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at very, very short notice that Europe and European nations are serious about their own security and would be able to corral a force that would be strong enough to be a deterrent for Putin," Lewis says.
He adds that the goal is to convince Vladimir Putin that Europe alone, without the US, is a "big enough deterrent" to make it worth coming to the table to discuss a peace deal – rather than one-on-one talks with Trump.
He also says it's a show of strength to the US administration to prove that European nations are serious about their own security.
"If you can do that in principle, then you have to get to the second bit, which is to actually work out the details of how any deal would work.
"Practically speaking, that feels so far off to me."
Where does Zelensky's relationship with Trump go from here?
The meeting between Trump and Zelensky went as badly as it could have possibly gone.
Inside the Oval Office, in front of the world's cameras, Zelensky refused to pander to Trump's ego and play the political game deployed by other world leaders, leading to a fiery and shocking barrage from Trump and vice president JD Vance.
“It was ugly," says Jon Sopel.
“It looked to the world as though Donald Trump and the vice president were beating up Volodymyr Zelensky.”
“Volodymyr Zelensky was not really in a mood to play sucking up”
Lewis Goodall described the televised clash as “disgraceful”.
“He clearly would never have spoken to any other leader, I think, in that way. He certainly wouldn't have spoken to Vladimir Putin in that way," he says.
“Trump and Zelensky both lose. The person who wins is Vladimir Putin.”
If the goal of the meeting was to bring about the end of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lewis adds, it instead resulted in only encouraging Putin to fight on, having given him exactly what he wanted.
"Right now, Putin knows that Trump and Zelensky are at each other's throats, that the West seems exhausted with the Ukrainian war, that it actually might be the time for Putin to press on and try and achieve the grander territorial designs that he had at the start of the war," he says.
Did Starmer step up to the challenge posed by the Ukraine conflict?
The one person to emerge from the past few days in a stronger position, The News Agents agree, is Keir Starmer.
Having called the emergency meeting of world leaders, where he told the press that the time for talking was over, and that action was now required, Jon thinks Starmer appeared “incredibly sure-footed”.
"Any deal must be backed by strength," Starmer said.
"Every nation must contribute to that in the best way that it can, bringing different capabilities and support to the table, but all taking responsibility to act, all stepping up their own share of the burden."
Lewis says this was a remarkable feat for a relative newcomer on the global stage.
"It's easy to forget how little time Keir Starmer has been in this job, and yet, already, this quite unlikely figure has basically been asked to pick up the mantle of European security," he says.
"Starmer is being asked to do something that European leaders have essentially not done for 80 years, which is to look after and make their own arrangements for their own security."
Those arrangements are now key, in order to replace the support, and finance, from the US, which is now set to end under the rule of Donald Trump.
Jon Sopel says that what happens next could determine the future of America's part of NATO, and indeed the survival of NATO itself.
He thinks Starmer's actions over the weekend show the Prime Minister in a strong light, and one the UK has not seen since he entered Downing Street in July 2024.
"Fair play to Starmer. On this podcast over the past few months, we've spoken a lot about how clunky he is, how politically un-agile he can be," he adds.
"Actually, over the past few days, he's looked incredibly sure-footed and clear about what he needs to do with the pieces of the jigsaw he needs to put in place to try to at least make this a kind of viable option.
"Starmer has not said a single word of criticism to Donald Trump. But boy did he warmly embrace Zelensky when he arrived at Downing Street. He was almost emotional when they spoke together."
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