Munich security conference live: Europe must be ready to fight Russia as ‘warning signs are there’, says Starmer | Ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates#top-of-blog
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Solidity of peace is softening,’ Starmer warns, as he points to ‘warning signs’ from Russia
Starmer says that “for many years, for most people in the UK war has been remote: something that concerns us deeply, but which happens far away.”
But now “the solidity of peace” has been “softening,” he says.
He says leaders need to get ahead of the “warning signs” from Russia and get ready for what could come in the future.
He says:
“All of the warning signs are there.
Russia has proved its appetite for aggression, bringing terrible suffering to the Ukrainian people.
Its hybrid threats extend across our continent, not just threatening our security, but tearing at our social contract, collaborating with populists who undermine our values, using disinformation to sow division, using cyber-attacks and sabotage to disrupt our lives and deepening the cost of living crisis.”
He says that Russia “has made a huge strategic blunder” in Ukraine, but it continues to rearm and as Nato says it could be ready to use force against the alliance “by the end of this decade.”
He says that even if there is a peace deal in Ukraine, “the wider danger for Europe would not end there,” but only increase.
He says “we do not seek conflict,” but we need to “face these threats”.
“We must be able to deter aggression, and yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight, to do whatever it takes to protect our people, our values, and our way of live.”
He adds that “as Europe, we must stand own on our own two feet now,” and that means “putting away petty politics and short term concerns” but focusing on working together.
He says it means “acting together to build a stronger Europe and a more European Nato underpinned by deeper links between the UK and the EU.”
The UK is unfortunally in a similiar situation as the USA, as that there are a lot of people rather hostile towards the EU, and since a ocean, even a small one, disconnects them from the continent, many deem themselves as not being a part of Europe.
They would be the weakest link in a possible common defence chain.
*softening*? you don’t say? last I checked, the UK army is the [smallest in the past 200 years](https://www.businessinsider.com/british-army-size-smallest-since-napoleonic-wars-2024-7), no? What are you going around giving speeches, Sir Keir? Clean up your own house.
Who is this conference for? Why is everyone giving these speeches? – because basically no one is doing anything, four years after the Ukraine invasion.
Jakub Krupa in Munich
**This was a very pro-European speech by Starmer,** at times even resembling Macron’s speech from yesterday – and similarly undercut by serious doubts as to the credibility of the vision he outlined given his precarious future.
Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer gives a speech at the 62nd Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images
His **repeated references to “10 years on from Brexit” and “some urgency” in this reset** ([10:33](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-699040fa8f0893c883d517ea#block-699040fa8f0893c883d517ea), [10:56](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-699046678f0893c883d51809#block-699046678f0893c883d51809)) **were particularly interesting**: could it be a sign of further rapprochement as we get closer to the *actual* 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum in June?
Speaking alongside the European Commission’s president, a sign in itself, Starmer has made it pretty clear that his government is *very* interested in closer defence amid increasingly urgent threat from Russia ([10:31](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-69903fd48f08a3236d0645ef#block-69903fd48f08a3236d0645ef), [10:42](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-699042e08f0893c883d517f9#block-699042e08f0893c883d517f9)) and reinvigorating trade ties ([10:46](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-699043e98f0893c883d517fd#block-699043e98f0893c883d517fd)), including some sort of alignment with, but not a membership of, the EU single market. And there is some appetite for both of these things on the EU side, too.
But **reopening these debates would bring back the usual questions about associated trade offs and political costs,** which both are tricky for any UK government, even at the best of times. Just thinking about it give me flashbacks from covering the Brexit years.
There is also a domestic angle to all of that.
As my colleague **Jessica Elgot** noted last month, the battle over closer ties with Europe is not accidental here as it is likely to be a key dividing line that Labour seeks to draw with Reform.
We heard a bit of that in his comments warning against “the peddlers of easy answers” on “the extremes of left and right” ([10:49](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/14/munich-security-conference-live-marco-rubio-keir-starmer-eu-europe-ukraine-russia-latest-news-updates?page=with%3Ablock-699044818f0807ca308223e4#block-699044818f0807ca308223e4)).