UK’s Ukraine support ‘resolute’ after Trump win

Treasury minister Darren Jones has said the UK government’s commitment to Ukraine is “resolute” amid fears incoming US President Donald Trump could push the country into giving up territory to Russia.

Jones told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, “Ukraine should be able to recover its country as it was previously structured” and that there “shouldn’t be an element of conceding to illegal invasions from Russia”.

He added he would not comment on “hypothetical scenarios” of a future US administration.

Speaking to the same programme, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said the UK had to find a “shared way of working with the US” on Ukraine.

During the election campaign, Trump characterised the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a drain on US resources and said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in a day”.

The president-elect has not offered details of how he would resolve the conflict,

However, a research paper written by two of his former national security advisers has argued that the US should continue its weapons supply to Ukraine, but make the support conditional on Kyiv entering peace talks with Russia.

To entice Russia, the West would promise to delay Ukraine’s entry into Nato, the military alliance of European and North American nations.

The former advisers argued Ukraine should not give up its hopes of getting its territory back from Russian occupation, but that it should negotiate based on current front lines.