Putin must stop 'dragging his heels' says Starmer as Trump calls Russian president 'misguided' after Zelenskyy talks

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump have both hit out at Vladimir Putin after the Nato summit in The Hague on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister was responding to a question about Donald Trump's comments about the situation in Ukraine being "totally out of control".

On whether Trump will get tougher on Russia, Sir Keir said the mood of all NATO members was one of "positivity and resolve and purpose" in "the strength and unity of NATO".

"But at the same time, recognising that, we need to now push harder on Ukraine," he adds.

"Certainly my position has been for some considerable time now that Putin must stop dragging his heels and get to the table."

He says all of the discussions at the NATO summit "have been urging that outcome".

Starmer was speaking after the NATO summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, where member states reaffirmed their commitment to collective defence and agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP.

But notably missing from the declaration released by member states was a condemnation of Russia's war on Ukraine, though it referred to "the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security."

The only mention of the war came in the context of spending - the paragraph reads: "Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine's defence and its defence industry when calculating Allies' defence spending."

Despite this lack of condemnation, Starmer said the UK's and NATO's positions on the war haven't changed.

"In fact, over the last couple of days, I would say my discussions with leaders - there's been a real resolve," he told reporters.

He said "now is the time to push again to get Putin to the table for the unconditional ceasefire", adding: "President Zelenskyy has, for many weeks now, indicated his willingness to go for an unconditional ceasefire.

"Now is the time for Putin, who has been dragging his heels, to come to the table."

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It comes just days after Putin ramped up his rhetoric on the war, restating his desire to conquer all of Ukraine for the first time in months.

The Russian president insisted that his country will not relinquish any occupied territory as part of peace negotiations, and even went as far as to threaten a nuclear strike.

On Friday, Putin told business leaders in St Petersburg: "I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation."

"In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours," he said, adding: "There is an old rule: 'Where a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours'."

He promised "catastrophic" consequences if Kyiv used a dirty bomb against Russian forces, saying: "This would be a colossal mistake on the part of those whom we call neo-Nazis on the territory of today's Ukraine."

"It could be their last mistake. We always respond and respond in kind. Therefore, our response will be very tough."

The Russian president's comments are in sharp contrast to the Kremlin's recent rhetoric in regards to Ukraine. Since US President Donald Trump began pushing for a peace deal, Moscow has appeared to be open to a settlement.

Trump spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit, which the latter said was a "long and substantive meeting" that covered "all the truly important issues."

"I thank Mr. President, I thank the United States," Zelenskyy wrote on X.

"We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people. We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace closer," he added, promising more details would follow.

Trump, who is closer to Putin than most other NATO members, has promised to end the war in Ukraine 'on day one' of his presidency, but has so far failed to do so.

His efforts to achieve a ceasefire seem to have stalled recently, as his focus shifted to Israel's war with Iran, which the US joined briefly by bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.

But he has now said he is "very surprised' by Putin, adding that his Russian counterpart has been 'misguided'.

Asked about Putin's potential territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, the US president said: "It's possible."

"I know one thing, he'd like to settle. He'd like to get out of this thing, it's a mess for him," he added.

Trump said the Russian president has "been misguided" and adds: "I'm very surprised actually. I thought we should have settled that easily."