LONDON, Aug 14, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met 
Thursday in London with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a strong show of 
support on the eve of a key US-Russia summit from which Kyiv and its European 
allies have been excluded.

Starmer greeted the Ukrainian leader with a warm hug and handshake on the 
steps of his Downing Street residence, only hours after Zelensky took part in 
a virtual call with US President Donald Trump.

Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at an air base in Alaska, the first 
time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 
2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people.

A stepped-up Russian offensive, and the fact Zelensky has not been invited to 
the Anchorage meeting Friday, have heightened fears that Trump and Putin 
could strike a deal that forces painful concessions on Ukraine.

But Starmer said Wednesday there was now a "viable" chance for a ceasefire in 
Ukraine after more than three years of fighting.

Near the front line Thursday, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia 
overnight into the early morning, wounding three people and sparking fires 
including at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd.

Kyiv calls the strikes fair retaliation for Moscow's daily missile and drone 
barrages on its own civilians.

With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before 
Friday's meeting.

- Three-way meeting? -

Zelensky, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, joined the call 
from Berlin with Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence 
afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions 
by Kyiv.

Trump has sent mixed messages, saying he could quickly organise a three-way 
summit afterward with both Zelensky and Putin, but also warning of his 
impatience with Putin.

"There may be no second meeting because, if I feel that it's not appropriate 
to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we are 
not going to have a second meeting," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

But Trump added: "If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one," 
involving both Putin and Zelensky.

Zelensky, after being berated by Trump at a February meeting in the White 
House, has publicly supported US diplomacy but has made clear his deep 
scepticism.

"I have told my colleagues -- the US president and our European friends -- 
that Putin definitely does not want peace," Zelensky said.

As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky was in Berlin Wednesday 
joining Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European 
leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, to show a united stance against Russia.

Starmer on Wednesday said Ukraine's military backers, the so-called Coalition 
of the Willing, had drawn up workable military plans in case of a ceasefire 
but were also ready to add pressure on Russia through sanctions.

"For three and a bit years this conflict has been going, we haven't got 
anywhere near... a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire," Starmer told 
Wednesday's meeting of European leaders.

"Now we do have that chance, because of the work that the (US) president has 
put in," he said.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared: "The ball is now in Putin's 
court."