Sir Keir Starmer is on his way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the G20 summit.

Along the way, he answered questions from journalists from Sky News and other media outlets, and was asked about German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to speak to Vladimir Putin, which sparked a furious reaction of the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The prime minister said: “It’s up to Chancellor Schloz who he talks to. I have no intention of talking to Putin.”

He noted that we are approaching the thousandth day of the war, “1,000 days of enormous impact and sacrifice for the Ukrainian people.”

More generally, Sir Keir said the deployment of North Korean troops in Ukraine “shows Russia’s desperation”, but also said it had “serious implications for European security”.

It is for this reason that he is calling on world leaders to “redouble our efforts to strengthen our support for Ukraine”, which he described as “his priority” at the G20 summit.

Asked why he would expect US President-elect Donald Trump to honor everything agreed at that summit, the Prime Minister replied: “There are some really important issues here, right now. moment, regarding Ukraine, which, in my opinion, are worth our time (to discuss) and it is important that we continue.”