As leaders continue to arrive for the summit at Lancaster House, Starmer (or more accurately, his comms team, unless he’s posting from the corridors there) has just posted a picture of him talking to the three Baltic leaders, with his readout from the meeting.

Speaking with President @AlarKaris, Prime Minister @EvikaSilinaand President @GitanasNauseda, we agreed that we must come together to find a path towards a lasting peace in Ukraine that ensures their sovereignty and is backed up by strong security guarantees.

This is vital for the UK and Europe’s future security.

No comment on the frustration about the fact they didn’t get an invite, though.

Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson is the latest leader to enter Lancaster House, so let’s take a look at some of the arrivals so far:

I earlier offered you a readout from the call that UK’s Starmer had with leaders of the three Baltic nations. But the fact they were not invited to attend today’s summit in person sparked a bit of a controversy in the region.

The three countries are in the top four contributors of aid for Ukraine if counted as a percentage of GDP, according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.

And chief adviser to Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda, Asta Skaisgirytė, said the leaders made their frustration clear during the call.

She told the Lithuanian LRT Radio that Starmer began their discussion today with an apology, saying that “next time such things will be avoided.”

Skaisgirytė disclosed that the call was also attended by Latvian president Evika Siliņa and Estonian president Alar Karis.

You can follow leaders’ arrivals with us below and at the top of the blog:

Today’s summit takes place in Lancaster House, an official government mansion just a stone’s throw from the Buckingham Palace in central London (in fact, it’s magnificent hall and staircase doubled for the Palace in Netflix’s The Crown!).

It’s seen a fair few diplomatic summits there (with a number of treaties named after the building), and Theresa May’s first Brexit speech in 2017.

It is also an important place in the context of Nato: it is in Lancaster House where foreign ministers of the 12 founding nations discussed the aims, objectives and structure of the organisation in 1950, as UK foreign ministry noted.

If you fancy feeling like one of the leaders attending today, you can tour the building here.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has just left Downing Street 10 after bilateral talks with Starmer.

And just seconds later, the UK prime minister and today’s host, Keir Starmer, walked into Lancaster House, the venue of today’s summit, and is hanging around the entrance to welcome the first leaders.

French president Emmanuel Macron is the first to arrive.

Earlier today, UK prime minister Keir Starmer also met with representatives of the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda posted a readout from their meeting, saying “the US and Ukraine should return to the negotiation table, together with Europeans,” but also backing Tusk’s comments earlier on prioritising Nato’s eastern flank.

Had an important discussion with UK Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer and other Baltic leaders.

My takeaways:

– We should not spare our effort to maintain a strong transatlantic bond.

– US and Ukraine should return to the negotiation table, together with Europeans.

– Nato eastern flank safety is a priority.

– European peace enforcement – a possible element of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Jakub Krupa

Hello, it’s Jakub Krupa in London now, taking over from the brilliant Yohannes Lowe after a very busy morning to guide you through the afternoon, as we’re getting closer to the start of the summit.

I will bring you all the latest throughout the day, including the leaders’ press conferences and statements after the summit.

Stay with us on Europe Live.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who could offer a possible bridge between the Trump administration and Europe, has arrived in Downing Street ahead of the defence summit hosted by British prime minister Keir Starmer.

The Italian leader spoke by phone with US President Donald Trump yesterday evening. Her office said the call was held “in view of her meeting in London tomorrow with the President of Ukraine,” offering no further details.

Highly indebted Italy is projecting its defence spending will hit 1.61% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2027. That is below a current 2% Nato alliance target, which Trump wants raised to 5%.

Meloni, who came to power as a staunch supporter of Ukraine but has good relationships with the Trump administration, has welcomed a proposal from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to exclude defence from EU limits on government spending.

Starmer has committed to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by April 2027, up from the current 2.3 percent rate. He will likely be urging other European countries to also boost their defence spending as the US expects Europe to take the lead in defending Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said the “foreign policy” of Washington and Moscow is broadly aligned now Donald Trump is in office.

“The new (US) administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely coincides with our vision,” Peskov said, according to a post by state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin on Sunday on the Telegram channel.

The Kremlin’s comments come after Trump seemed to blame Kyiv for Moscow’s full-scale invasion, claiming Ukraine could have “made a deal” to avert war, and after the US last week pushed through a UN security council resolution on the war that included no criticism of Russia.

Trump, who has called Zelenskyy, the democratically elected leader of Ukraine, a “dictator” without evidence, has quickly moved to direct talks with Russia that have sidelined Ukraine and alarmed European allies.

Trump officials fume at Zelenskyy for disregarding advice before meeting

Hugo Lowell

Hugo Lowell is a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Guardian covering Donald Trump and the Justice Department

Inside the Trump White House, officials blamed the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for the meltdown in the Oval Office on Friday, and expressed frustration that he pushed for security guarantees even though the US had made clear they wanted to negotiate that later, according to people familiar with the matter.

The officials had told their Ukrainian counterparts in advance of the meeting that Trump wanted to sign an economic partnership this week at a ministerial level, as aides worked on the details about security guarantees.

Trump saw the minerals deal as the first phase of a broader economic partnership and told aides it showed the US was effectively making a commitment on security guarantees, because the agreement deal would mean the US had a vested interest in Ukraine’s economic prosperity.

The officials believed that had all been communicated to Ukraine, as was the advice that senators gave Zelenskyy on Friday morning to praise Trump and not litigate the issue of wanting stronger security guarantees to his face.

To Trump’s aides, Zelenskyy did not heed that advice when he expressed skepticism at JD Vance’s view of making peace with Russia and, in their view, lectured the US vice-president on the history of Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine that started in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea.

As diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the war ramp up, Russia continues to attack Ukrainian cities.

Russian shelling overnight killed one person and injured two more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk and Russian forces attacked Ukraine with 79 drones, according to officials.

“Kramatorsk was subjected to hostile shelling – residential district,” city mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said. “A boy born in 2006 was killed, “ he wrote on Telegram, adding that a man and a woman were also injured.

Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 63 of the 79 Russian drones that attacked overnight in several Ukrainian regions, the country’s air force said.

A Russian drone attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southwestern Ukraine injured one civilian, the governor of the broader Zaporizhzhia region, of which the city is the administrative centre, said.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, has said attacks on Ukraine will continue until a deal to stop the fighting is secured that is acceptable to Moscow.

Polish PM to urge European leaders to increase military presence on Nato’s eastern flank

Jakub Krupa

As a reminder, British prime minister Keir Starmer is hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a crucial summit of European leaders later today. Among the attendees to the summit will be Polish prime minister Donald Tusk who has long been urging European countries to step up defence investment.

Our Europe live blogger, Jakub Krupa, has some quotes from Tusk given before he departed for London:

Speaking before his departure for London, Tusk said that “it has to be clear that … Poland is on the side of Ukraine, without any buts,” saying this was in Poland’s national interest.

Tusk also pointedly said that Europe should still work on “the closest possible alliance” with the US, even if the US administration’s position is “not as straightforward as ours” on the Ukraine-Russia war.

He then went on to talk about Europe’s military awakening, calling for increased defence spending as “an additional insurance policy,” while insisting that “being self-reliant does not mean being by itself”.

“A Europe that understands its global potential, its status as a superpower, will not be an alternative to the US, but the most wanted ally. In the end, that’s what Trump wants, for Europe to take much greater responsibility for its security,” he said.

“It’s a paradox, someone rightly pointed this out, that 500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them from 140 millions Russians,” he said.

He then extensively quoted data from the latest report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, showing the military advantage of Europe and Ukraine over Russia.

He also said that he would support Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s plan to call an emergency EU-US summit, and urge partners to increase military presence on the eastern flank of Nato, including in Finland, the Baltics, and in Poland.

Badenoch says the UK should be helping to negotiate “a “peace settlement” not a “surrender”.

“We need to make sure that president Zelenskyy feels that he has autonomy. They are a sovereign country and the principles that we are defending are the freedom of Ukraine and sovereignty,” she told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, adding that it is critical Kyiv is at the table for any so-called peace talks.