LONDON>> The leaders of Britain and France are spearheading a desperate diplomatic drive to shore up Europe’s security, bolster Ukraine’s defenses and ensure the Trump administration doesn’t seek a ceasefire on terms that reward Moscow for invading its neighbor.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Emmanuel Macron have been thrust to the fore by a U.S. administration that has embraced Moscow and derided Kyiv. Strikingly, their efforts are taking place outside the major institutions that have helped order Europe for decades: the EU and NATO.

“We are at a crossroads in history,” a somber Starmer said after a summit Sunday that he convened in support of Kyiv, three years into a grinding war.

Starmer spoke after a dizzying week in which Ukraine and its allies went from hope to gloom to grim resolve.

Diplomatic efforts to shore up American support for Kyiv appeared to be paying off as first Macron and then Starmer flew to Washington for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump. The meetings were cordial and Trump took a softer tone toward Ukraine, though he would not commit to providing U.S. security guarantees for Kyiv as part of a negotiated peace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to sign a deal granting the U.S. access to rare earth minerals that, Kyiv and its allies hoped, would bind the countries closer together. But then came Friday’s extraordinary on-camera berating of Zelenskyy by Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Starmer had already invited Zelenskyy, Macron and more than a dozen other leaders to London for a Sunday debrief. It now became a crisis summit. Starmer told them that European nations “must do the heavy lifting” to protect the continent’s security.

In addition to boosting defense spending, that means increasing support for Ukraine, drawing up a peace plan with Kyiv at its heart and bolstering Ukraine’s defenses after a ceasefire. As part of that plan, France and the U.K. are working to recruit other countries to send troops to Ukraine to protect a ceasefire in what Starmer calls a “coalition of the willing.”

In a stunning shift from just a few weeks ago, when the United States’ leading role in Ukraine was taken for granted, Starmer said “the U.K., France and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting” — and only then discuss it with the United States.

The EU is due to hold a summit on Ukraine on Thursday, but efforts to support Kyiv are constrained by the 27-nation bloc’s need for unanimity. Hungary’s pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Orban is playing spoiler, opposing draft conclusions that center on the defense of Ukraine and its place at the negotiating table and urging the EU to follow “the example of the United States” and start direct discussions with Russia.