Starmer’s remarks come as Europe prepares to step up military support for Ukraine ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. Trump is expected to push Kyiv into negotiations with Moscow.

“So we must continue to back Ukraine and do what it takes to support their self-defense for as long as it takes,” Starmer said at the annual Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London.

“To put Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations so that they can secure a just and lasting peace on their terms that guarantees their security, independence, and right to choose their future.”

Starmer added that support for Ukraine was in the best interest of not only the UK, but all of Europe, arguing that unchecked Russian aggression posed to great a threat to international security.

“The further Russian troops advance, the closer the threat becomes,” he continued.

“The more land they control, the more they control grain prices and energy sources, and the more confident (Russian President Vladimir) Putin becomes.”

With Trump’s return to Washington imminent, both the UK and France are reportedly exploring options to support Ukraine in potential peace talks with Russia. A senior NATO official said on Dec. 2 that one scenario could include deploying UK and French troops to monitor a ceasefire along the contact line.

Starmer backed up his rhetoric on support for Ukraine with shipments of Storm Shadow cruise missiles this fall, Bloomberg reported in late November.

Ukrainian forces recently used the Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian targets in the western Bryansk region, one day after deploying US-made ATACMS in similar operations.

The Ukrainian leader renewed his call on Sunday ahead of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels this week. At a meeting in Kiev with new EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, Zelensky insisted an invitation was a “necessary thing for the country’s survival.”

However, according to a diplomat cited by the French daily, the issue is not currently on the table in Brussels. The unnamed official said there were objections from Germany, Hungary, and the US, and that Ukrainian NATO membership “is an option that makes many allies very uneasy.” Other countries, including France and the UK, have been supportive of Kiev’s push to join.

The report pointed out that outgoing US President Joe Biden has refused to authorize an invitation. US President-elect Donald Trump, who has never supported the idea, has pledged to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours after he returns to the White House.

Trump’s new special envoy to Russia and Ukraine, retired General Keith Kellogg, suggested in a report issued earlier this year that in order to convince Moscow to join peace talks, Biden and other NATO leaders “should offer to put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period in exchange for a comprehensive and verifiable peace deal with security guarantees.”

Ukraine applied to join NATO in September 2022. While some member-states have expressed support, the bloc has repeatedly warned that Ukraine cannot become a member until the conflict with Russia is resolved.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long cited NATO’s eastward expansion as one of the causes of the Ukraine conflict. Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the country drop its plans to join NATO, commit to neutral status, and cede claims to all five former Ukrainian regions that chose to join Russia before the holding of any peace talks.

Zelensky has insisted in the past that only the “complete withdrawal” of Russian forces from those territories and the restoration of the country’s 1991 borders could serve as a precondition for peace negotiations.

On Monday, however, he told Kyodo News that Kiev could agree to a ceasefire with Moscow if accession to NATO is guaranteed, and maintained this would put the country in “a strong position” in case of future conflict with Moscow.

“I would argue, let’s not have all these discussions step by step on what a peace process might look like,” Rutte said at the first full gathering of the group since President-elect Donald Trump’s win.

“Make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to get to a position of strength when those peace talks start, when the Ukrainian government has decided they are ready to do so,” he added.

Trump has long said that he would seek an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine upon returning to the White House.

The contours of a deal remain murky, but Trump’s pick for special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, has offered fairly detailed proposals for a truce. Controversially, Kellogg has said that further U.S. aid to Ukraine should be conditional on Ukraine’s willingness to participate in peace talks.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky stoked speculation about a peace deal with his recent comments outlining some basic demands and concessions for a ceasefire, mainly that Russia can effectively control areas it currently occupies, in exchange for NATO protections being extended to the rest of Ukraine.

Rutte, a Dutch politician who just entered his second month as the head of NATO, stated he will continue to advocate for efforts that increase Ukraine’s stockpile.

“And that is what we will very much focus on the next two days, how to get more military aid into Ukraine, more missile defense into Ukraine, better coordination of everything we are doing, making sure that the command in Wiesbaden will be up and running as soon as possible, that the pledge is implemented, that is what we need to do.”

Rutte pledged to ensure the sovereign nation’s stability on the battlefield as they head into a “crucial winter” that promises to spur more Russian attacks.

“Putin is not interested in peace. He is pressing on, trying to take more territory, because he thinks he can break Ukraine’s resolve and ours,” Rutte mentioned, adding, “But he is wrong. Ukraine has a right to defend itself, and we have a duty to help them. So we need to continue our steadfast support.”

Rutte previously dealt with Trump as the Dutch prime minister during Trump’s first term. The president-elect and his foreign policy team met with Rutte in late November to discuss a “range of issues” facing the alliance.

Zelensky in his Friday interview with Sky News said Ukraine needs to come under the NATO “umbrella” to end the “hot phase” of the war.

“We need to do it fast. And then on the [occupied] territory of Ukraine, Ukraine can get them back in a diplomatic way,” he added.

Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to the war, has been critical of the arms and money sent abroad to fuel Ukraine’s front lines and has instead proposed a “formal U.S. policy” to end the war rather than funding a “stalemate”.

“It means working in alliances and with partners to promote regional security while requiring alliance members and allies to carry their full weight in defending security in the region,” Kellogg wrote in an America First Policy Institute report.