British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Ukraine needs additional security guarantees because of Vladimir Putin's ambitions, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

In comments for the News Agents podcast posted on social media, Starmer said pressure on Moscow needed to be increased to ensure lasting peace in Ukraine.

He said he is aware that Putin has ambitions that are barely disguised, adding that if the agreement is not protected by security guarantees, Putin will violate it.

According to the Prime Minister, the UK is focused on a lasting and secure peace in Ukraine, which is what all want. Starmer also said that he was not at all surprised that Russia takes this position as it had made it clear several times.

“I think progress was made on Tuesday, and I always felt that and hoped that out of Tuesday that would put the ball in the Russian court, if you like, where the pressure would come on Russia. That has now happened. That is a good thing, because Russia is the aggressor. Russia is the country that where there had been previous deals and agreements, [it] has not honoured those,” he said.

The head of the British government stated the need for further cooperation with the United States and Ukraine. “I’ve got this meeting in on Saturday to bring a number of leaders together to see what further progress that we can make, but lasting secure peace with the sovereignty and security of Ukraine. But 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,” Starmer said.

He also noted that Russia's resistance to proposals to provide Ukraine with additional security guarantees indicates that if the peace agreement is not protected by security guarantees, it will be violated by the Russian side. “If you don’t intend to breach the deal, you wouldn’t have too many problems with guarantees for the deal. And we know that in the past, he’s [Putin] breached the deal,” Starmer said.