Keir Starmer says he's 'not surprised' that Russia dismissed Ukraine ceasefire deal

13 March 2025, 13:42 | Updated: 13 March 2025, 14:12

Keir Starmer has said he is unsurprised that Russia appears uninterested in the US-brokered Ukraine ceasefire deal.

The Prime Minister told the News Agents podcast that he was still focused on achieving a "lasting and secure" peace in Ukraine.

US negotiators are in Moscow on Wednesday to present the Kremlin with their ceasefire deal for Ukraine.

But Yuri Ushakov, Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser, said earlier that a ceasefire will offer "nothing other than a temporary breather for Ukrainian troops".

Russia has not openly rejected the deal and an announcement is expected later.

In a wide-ranging interview, Sir Keir also told the News Agents that he wants to slash the size of the British state, said that work on abolishing NHS England will begin "straight away", and defended the UK's decision to invite Donald Trump for a second state visit.

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Addressing Mr Ushakov's dismissive comments about the peace deal, which Ukraine agreed to on Tuesday, Sir Keir said that "it doesn't entirely surprise me that Russia's taking this stance."

"They've made it pretty clear. They put it in lights a number of times over."

He added that "progress was made on Tuesday" in the US-Ukraine talks in Jeddah, adding that it was "a good thing" that "the ball is in Russia's court".

"Russia's the aggressor," he said. "And we know that Putin has ambitions that are barely disguised. So I'm not surprised that we've got to this point.

"What we need to do now is work with our allies, work with the US, work with Ukraine".

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Sir Keir said that his meeting on Saturday with Commonwealth and European leaders was "to see what further progress that we can make" to secure "lasting, secure peace with the sovereignty and security of Ukraine".

He added: "It has to be a peace where the deal is defended, because we've had a deal before and it's not been maintained because Russia just breaches the line".

Asked if Putin believes in peace, Sir Keir said: "He's being put to the test and he is saying, and he said before that he doesn't want security guarantees in relation to the deal. That tells you something.

"If you don't intend to breach the deal, you wouldn't have too many problems with guarantee for the deal. And we know that in the past he's breached the deal.

"So his reaction reinforces my strong belief that if the deal is not defended with security guarantees, then he will breach it in due course at the moment of his choosing".

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Sir Keir was speaking after announcing the abolition of NHS England, with the agency's functions set to be folded into central government.

He said the move would cut bureaucracy and bring the health service back under "democratic control."

Explaining his decision-making, the PM told the News Agents: "You've got NHS England, which has a team of communications officers and you've got the department that's got a team of communication officers. NHS England got a team of strategists and policy workers. You've got the equivalent in the department.

"When you've got to make money go as far as it can in the health service, that just does not make sense. And what it does is free up the money to go to the frontline, which in my view is where it should be.

"I also think that most of the change that we're bringing about in the health service is driven from the frontline. Taking out duplication, which doesn't make sense, is not top down, it's just basic common sense."

Sir Keir did not comment on when NHS England would finally cease to exist, and how much money its abolition would save, saying simply: "We'll start on it straight away."

The Prime Minister said that he wanted to shrink the state, not because he didn't believe in it, but because he wanted it to be "active".

"I think it should be sleeves rolled up, it should be on the pitch making a difference. But at the moment, what we got is an oversized and underpowered state, the complete opposite of the active state," he said.

Sir Keir came in for criticism last month for the King inviting Mr Trump for a second state visit - on the government's initiative - despite the US president rowing with Volodymyr Zelenskky and trying to take on Canada, a member of the Commonwealth, as the 51st state.

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Defending his decision, he told the News Agents: "They're our closest ally. Our defence and security intelligence is bound up one with the other. We have enormous amounts, billions and billions of pounds worth of trade between our two countries.

"We fought wars together, we faced challenges together. And no two countries work as closely as our two countries. The special relationship isn't just a phrase that's useful in history books and biographies. It is the lived experience of how we keep our country safe."

He added: "On Canada, they are an incredibly close and important ally of this country, which they have been for a very, very long time.

"The King is head of State. It's his Prime Minister in Canada. We've just obviously got an incoming Prime Minister. And I've made that absolutely clear in relation to our position on Canada".