Politics

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is "exchangeable" for Ukrainian membership of NATO, indicating he would be prepared to step down as president if his country was allowed to join the military alliance.

There was both symbolism and substance on Sunday as European leaders and NATO allies gathered in London to try to pick up the pieces after a shattering encounter in the Oval Office between the president of a superpower and a president at war.

Sir Keir Starmer has suggested a coalition of European allies could step up and defend a potential deal for Ukraine to "guarantee the peace".

Remarkable – and relatively speaking a blessing – that the wake-up call for Britain to take defence seriously again did not come in the form of a military attack on UK soil, but instead was triggered by the verbal assault of Ukraine's wartime leader by a sitting US president.

The UK can still trust the US with Ukraine's future despite the bad-tempered clash at the White House between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a minister has said.