Ukraine still on ‘irreversible path to joining NATO’ Starmer tells Zelenskyy
Ukraine is still on an “irreversible path” to joining NATO, Sir Keir Starmer has told Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The UK and Ukrainian leaders spoke on the phone early on Friday, according to Downing Street.
The conversation came less than 24 hours after Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he didn’t see any way “that a country in Russia’s position” could allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Ukraine war latest: Russian drone strikes Chernobyl site
Mr Trump’s deputy Ukraine envoy John Coale also said on Thursday that NATO membership for Ukraine was still “on the table”.
The US president has repeatedly said he wants to end the war in Ukraine, and has said he wants to start negotiations.
He is also pushing for Europe to provide more support for Kyiv, and the US to spend less.
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‘Any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine without us – we will not accept’.
A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir began the conversation by “reiterating the UK’s concrete support for Ukraine, for as long as it’s needed”.
They added: “He was unequivocal that there could be no talks about Ukraine, without Ukraine.
“Ukraine needed strong security guarantees, further lethal aid and a sovereign future, and it could count on the UK to step up, he added.
“The prime minister reiterated the UK’s commitment to Ukraine being on an irreversible path to NATO, as agreed by allies at the Washington summit last year.
“Discussing the upcoming third anniversary of Ukraine’s courageous defence of its sovereignty in the face of Russia’s barbaric full-scale invasion, the leaders agreed that it would be an important moment to demonstrate international unity and support for Ukraine.
“The leaders also reflected on the prime minister’s visit to Kyiv last month, and the president updated on his plans at Munich Security Conference.
“They agreed to stay in close contact.”
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A statement on Mr Zelenskyy‘s social media said: “I informed Prime Minister Starmer about my discussion with President Trump and contacts with the American side. The Ukrainian and American teams must work together with Europeans and all our global partners to achieve concrete results.
“The security of each nation depends on strengthening our collective security. It is crucial that every new week brings tangible results that will ensure a lasting and reliable peace.
“We also discussed an action plan for the near future to shape a common strategy on security, economic cooperation, and political partnership.”
Starmer is finally standing up to Trump
After weeks of Donald Trump overturning long-established geopolitical relationships and exploding diplomatic expectations – the UK government is finally pushing back.
Abandoning our promises to Ukraine is a red line, even for a prime minister who has recently seemed more focused on getting back in the new president’s good books – in the hopes of avoiding punishing trade tariffs – than standing up for our old alliances.
Sir Keir Starmer’s early morning phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressing his “concrete support” for Ukraine, the promise of “strong security guarantees, further lethal aid and a sovereign future” and insistence that there should be no talks “about Ukraine without Ukraine” is a restatement of a long-held position not just for the UK but for all the western allies.
But earlier this week Mr Trump ripped up that consensus with his chummy 90-minute phone call with President Vladimir Putin, suggesting that Ukraine would have to give up territory and forsake its NATO ambitions in return for any peace deal.
Sir Keir’s strategy up to now has been to tip toe around his bombastic US counterpart, hoping that the rhetoric will ultimately become detached from reality. The UK didn’t utter a peep of complaint in response to the aggressive tariffs slapped on our close ally Canada.
Yet on Ukraine the PM is finally taking a more muscular stance – not just in his broader expression of support but specifically in his commitment to the country being on an “irreversible path to NATO, as agreed by allies at the Washington Summit last year”.
Joining NATO – where an attack on one is treated as an attack on all – would be the ultimate security guarantee for Ukraine. The Russians see it as the ultimate provocation.
Clearly NATO membership for Ukraine – without the support of its biggest member – would be nigh on impossible. But now the PM has shown he is willing to burn through his capital with Donald Trump in the interests of Ukraine. We don’t yet know what the mercurial president’s response will be; but it’s a decision which will be broadly supported in Westminster and beyond.
US officials appear set to meet with Russian counterparts at the Munich Security Conference to discuss an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
While Mr Trump said Ukraine is also invited to the talks, Kyiv has said it does not expect to have a discussion with Moscow today.
Mr Trump’s pronouncements on the talks – that Ukraine would not be able to return to its 2014 borders nor join NATO – have drawn criticism from Russia hawks and supporters of Ukraine.
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John Bolton, who was the president’s national security adviser in his first term, said: “Endless concessions to Moscow are a threat to American national security.
“This week the Trump [administration] blew up the NATO position on Ukraine and the Belovezha Accords, which broke up the Soviet Union. This puts every other former republic of the Soviet Union at risk of Russian aggression.”
According to the readout of the call between Sir Keir and Mr Zelenskyy, it does not appear that they discussed the missile strike on the Chernobyl nuclear powerstation overnight.
Update (April 3, 5:43 am UTC): This article has been updated to add information on the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act.
The US House Financial Services Committee has passed a Republican-backed stablecoin framework bill, which will now head to the House floor for a full vote.
The Committee passed the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, with a 32-17 vote on April 2, with six Democrats voting in favor.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 6 by committee Chair French Hill and the chair of its Digital Assets Subcommittee, Bryan Steil — reportedly drafted with the help of the world’s largest stablecoin issue, Tether.
Source: Financial Services GOP
The bill would provide rules around payment stablecoins, a crypto token tied to a currency such as the US dollar, and aims to ensure issuers give information about their business and how they back their tokens.
During an earlier markup session, the committee’s leading Democrat, Maxine Waters, who later voted against the bill, criticized her Republican peers for “setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent” with the STABLE Act.
She said President Donald Trump could use the bill to allow his family’s stablecoin to be used in government payments, and argued the bill validates Trump “and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else.”
In late March, the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto venture launched a stablecoin, World Liberty Financial USD (USD1). Meanwhile, the US Housing Department, which oversees social housing, was reportedly looking to experiment with using stablecoins for some of its functions.
Stablecoin GENIUS Act also weaves through Congress
Other stablecoin-related bills are also working their way through Congress, including the Republican-led Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, which lays out oversight and reserve rules for issuers.
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The US Senate Banking Committee voted through the GENIUS Act in an 18-6 vote on March 13, after Senator Bill Hagerty, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, updated it following consultation with the Committee’s Democrats.
Before the vote, Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said the updated GENIUS Act made “significant improvements to a number of important provisions” in areas such as consumer protections and authorized stablecoin issuers.
Both the STABLE Act and GENIUS Act will now wait until debate time on the floor of the House and Senate, respectively, before they head for a floor vote.
Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported on X that two unnamed crypto lobbyists said there is likely to be “a coordinated push behind the scenes over the next few weeks to get the two bills to mirror each other, as there are still some differences between them.”
Doing so would “avoid having to set up a so-called conference committee which is formed so members from both chambers can negotiate to create a final version of the bill everyone agrees on,” she added.
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Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.
Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.
The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.
In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.
Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.
Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.
The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.
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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.
In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.
Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.
The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.
Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.
She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.
Electrocuted on their genitals and mouths sewn up: Inside Bangladesh’s ‘death squad’ jails
Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX reportedly hired former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to advise it over the federal probe that resulted in the firm pleading guilty to several violations and agreeing to pay $505 million in fines and penalties.
Cuomo, a New York-registered attorney, advised OKX on legal issues stemming from the probe sometime after August 2021 when he resigned as New York overnor, Bloomberg reported on April 2, citing people familiar with the matter.
“He spoke with company executives regularly and counseled them on how to respond to the criminal investigation,” Bloomberg said.
The Seychelles-based firm pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in violation of US Anti-Money Laundering laws on Feb. 24 and agreed to pay $84 million worth of penalties while forfeiting $421 million worth of fees earned from mostly institutional clients.
The breaches occurred from 2018 to 2024 despite OKX having an official policy preventing US persons from transacting on its crypto exchange since 2017, the Department of Justice noted at the time.
A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, told Bloomberg that Cuomo has been providing private legal services representing individuals and corporations on a variety of matters since resigning as New York governor.
“He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency and routinely recommends former colleagues for positions,” Azzopardi added.
OKX reportedly wasn’t willing to comment on its relationships with outside firms.
Cuomo also influenced OKX to make executive appointments: Bloomberg
Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also advised OKX to appoint his friend US Attorney Linda Lacewell to OKX’s board of directors, Bloomberg said.
Lacewell, a former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, was added to the board in 2024 and was named OKX’s new chief legal officer on April 1, according to a recent company statement.
Source: Linda Lacewell
Related: New York bill aims to protect crypto investors from memecoin rug pulls
After the investigation concluded, OKX said it would seek out a compliance consultant to remedy the issues stemming from the federal probe and bolster its regulatory compliance program.
“Our vision is to make OKX the gold standard of global compliance at scale across different markets and their respective regulatory bodies,” OKX CEO Star Xu said in a Feb. 24 X post.
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