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Donald Trump has launched a blistering attack on “weak” European leaders of “decaying” nations. The US president’s comments followed crisis talks held between Sir Keir Starmer and European allies over ending the war in Ukraine.

In an extraordinary interview, the US president again accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky of not having read the latest draft of a peace plan. His shock attack on Europe and Kyiv will not calm concerns that he could abandon Ukraine to Russian aggression. In his interview with Politico released on Tuesday, Mr Trump again pushed Mr Zelensky to agree to the US proposal that Ukraine transfer territory to Russia, claiming that Moscow retains the “upper hand” and that Kyiv must “play ball”.

Downing Street said nobody wants peace in Ukraine more than Mr Zelensky and rejected Mr Trump’s criticism of Europe’s failure to “produce”.

A No 10 spokesman said: “I would reject that in terms of, you’ve seen the number of countries involved in the coalition of the willing discussions, you’ve also seen the work the UK has done in terms of leading the response on sanctions, including against the shadow fleet, but we strongly support the US peace process.”

The official also said: “We welcome significant US efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. Nobody wants [that] more than President Zelensky.”

Ukraine and its European allies are likely to insist that any ceasefire comes with security guarantees from both the US and the “coalition of the willing” convened by the UK and France. Kyiv is also likely to resist the transfer of territory to Russia.

Continuing his diplomatic tour of Europe, Mr Zelensky said he would send “refined documents” to the White House “in the near future”.

He wrote on X: “The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the US. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible.”

US ambassador Warren Stephens is set to visit Downing Street on Tuesday afternoon, as Downing Street stressed the continuing “strong relationship” between Sir Keir and Mr Trump following the president’s broadside against European leaders. Mr Trump’s new national security strategy was also critical of America’s traditional allies.

There are “still some outstanding issues” in the efforts to end the Ukraine conflict, the No 10 spokesman said, “but as you’ve seen from both the US and Ukrainian side, intensive work on the peace plan is continuing and will continue over the coming days and weeks”.

In a readout of the Cabinet meeting earlier, the spokesman said: “The Prime Minister said the stakes remained high, but the UK continues to work with all its partners to make progress on securing a just, lasting peace for Ukraine.

“The Foreign Secretary added that the threat from Russia was wider than just Ukraine, against Europe and undersea cables.”