Updated at 1316 EAT on 18th March 2022.

Boris Johnson is planning a face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden to plot the endgame’ in Ukraine after crisis rejuvenated the Special Relationship.

The PM is expected to hold talks with the US president at a Nato summit in Brussels next week, amid speculation that Britain could end up acting as one of the guarantors of kyiv’s future security.    

The bilateral talks have yet to be confirmed, but Mr Johnson and Mr Biden’s personal connection appears to have strengthened significantly during the standoff with Russia.

The president is said to have referred to the Prime Minister as ‘pal’ in phone calls, and the US and UK have been moving in lockstep over imposing sanctions and supplying weapons to Ukrainian forces.  

A government source told HICGI News Agency: ‘Thoughts are turning to the endgame. The losses Russia is suffering are unsustainable. If there is a settlement, there needs to be a discussion about how that settlement can be guaranteed.’ 

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has revealed his own ‘endgame’, with the Kremlin demanding that Ukraine ‘demilitarise’ as part of any peace deal. 

In return, Ukraine insists that Western countries act as guarantors that could intervene in the event of further aggression.

However, Volodymyr Zelensky would demand much firmer commitments than those given in 1994, when Britain was among the states that guaranteed Ukraine’s security after it agreed to give up huge nuclear weapons stocks. 

The manoeuvring came as it emerged Britain is in the process of buying a £500million defence system from the US capable of detecting missiles fired at the UK.  

The UK government has requested to buy a ballistic missiles defence radar and specialist equipment that would bolster the country’s capabilities in detecting missiles. The U.S. State Department last night said it had approved the potential sale.