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

En route, he took questions from journalists from Sky News and other outlets, and he was asked about the German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s decision to speak to Vladimir Putin, which sparked a furious reaction from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The PM said: “It’s a matter for Chancellor Schloz who he speaks to. I have no plans to speak to Putin.”

He noted that we are approaching the thousandth day of the war, “1,000 days of huge impact and sacrifice in relation to Ukrainian people”.

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

For that reason, he is calling on world leaders to “double down on shoring up our support for Ukraine”, which he described as his “top of my agenda” at the G20 summit.

Asked why he would expect US president-elect Donald Trump to honour anything agreed at this summit, the PM replied: “There are really important issues right here, right now when it comes to Ukraine that I think are well worth us [discussing], and it’s important that we do pursue.”