Sir Keir Starmer will present Donald Trump with a Ukraine peacekeeping plan when the two leaders meet next week following the president’s blistering attack on Volodymyr Zelensky.

He is expected to propose sending European forces to Ukrainian cities, ports and critical infrastructure sites to secure the peace following any ceasefire deal brokered by the US.

The proposed deployment will reportedly number fewer than 30,000 troops – far less than the 200,000 requested by Zelensky in the event of a truce.

They would also be stationed far from the front lines, instead operating as a ‘reassurance’ force for the civilian population and to help encourage the millions of Ukrainians who fled the country during the war to return.

The mission will rely on ‘technical monitoring’, including satellites, spy planes and drones to give a ‘complete picture of what is going on’, a Western official told the Telegraph.

However, the peacekeeping force would be backed up by enough firepower to ‘monitor and shoot down’ and attacks by the Russians.

Naval warships could also be deployed to the Black Sea.

But the Prime Minister has said any European-led peacekeeping operation would only work with a ‘US backstop’ to deter any resumption of hostilities by Russia.

‘The purpose of the backstop would be to have the confidence that whatever forces are deployed will not be challenged by Russia,’ the Western official told the Telegraph.

The proposed backstop could involve US fighter jets based outside Ukraine in Romania and Poland.

Trump has not said whether he would back such an operation, but his defence chief Pete Hegseth has already ruled out the possibility of American boots on the ground in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has also declared as ‘unacceptable’ the idea that any European or NATO troops could be sent to Ukraine.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: ‘The idea of deploying troops from NATO countries to Ukraine is unacceptable for Russia.’

Sir Keir and French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Washington next week.

It comes in the week of an extraordinary attack on Zelensky by Trump, who labelled the Ukrainian president ‘a dictator without elections’ for postponing the vote and incorrectly claimed Ukraine started the war with Russia.

Regarding the war, Trump added: ‘You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.’

Russia started the war by invading Ukraine, where politicians of all parties voted in November to delay elections until the conflict is over.

Zelenksy’s popularity has dipped during the long years of the invasion, but polling shows 57% of voters trust him.

‘We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia,’ he said.

‘President Trump unfortunately lives in this disinformation space.’

Hours later, Trump hit back online, calling the ex-TV entertainer a ‘moderately successful comedian’ who had done a ‘terrible job’ as president but had played previous US president Joe Biden ‘like a fiddle’.

He added: ‘A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.’

Meanwhile, 160,000 Ukrainians are facing freezing conditions after Russia launched 167 drones into the Odesa region, hitting energy infrastructure.

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