UK and France Work on Plan to End Fighting Between Ukraine and Russia
March 2, 2025, 1:17 pm

UK and France Work on Plan to End Fighting Between Ukraine and Russia

قميص اوكرانيا

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed on Sunday that his country and France are collaborating on a "plan to stop the fighting" between Ukraine and Russia, just hours before a critical summit in London with dozens of European officials.

Starmer told the BBC, "The United Kingdom, together with France and possibly one or two other countries, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting, and then we will discuss this plan with the United States," according to AFP.

Around 15 leaders of Ukraine’s allied countries are holding an important summit in London on Sunday to discuss new security guarantees for Europe amid fears of potential abandonment by Washington, heightened by a verbal exchange on Friday between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukrainian President Zelensky, greeted warmly by dozens of people gathered outside 10 Downing Street, met with Starmer on Saturday, who reaffirmed the "absolute commitment of the United Kingdom" to support Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion.

Subsequently, London and Kyiv signed a loan agreement worth £2.26 billion (approximately €2.74 billion) to support Ukraine's defense capabilities, an amount to be repaid from profits from frozen Russian assets.

Zelensky stated on Telegram, "The funds will be used to produce weapons in Ukraine," expressing his "gratitude to the people and government of the United Kingdom."

The summit will notably include French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa.

This comes ahead of an extraordinary European summit on Ukraine scheduled for March 6 in Brussels.

According to Downing Street, discussions in London will focus on "strengthening Ukraine's position today, including ongoing military support and increasing economic pressure on Russia."

Participants will also discuss "the necessity for Europe to play its role in defense" and "the next steps for planning robust security guarantees" on the continent, in light of the risk of U.S. military and nuclear umbrella withdrawal.

Ukraine and Europe are concerned about the rapprochement between Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In a bid to end the war, which the U.S. President refuses to hold Moscow responsible for, Moscow and Washington have initiated negotiations without inviting Ukraine or Europeans to the table.

These concerns do not appear to be easing, especially after the public exchange in the Oval Office between Zelensky, Trump, and U.S. Vice President Jay DeVance on Friday.

The U.S. President threatened his Ukrainian counterpart with abandoning Ukraine if he did not make concessions to resolve the dispute with Russia.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock responded on Saturday, stating, "A new era of shame has begun... we must defend more than ever the rules-based international order and the strength of law against the law of the strongest."

The German Foreign Minister called on Saturday for easing domestic and European budgetary provisions to provide additional resources to assist Ukraine and bolster European defense.

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
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