Christopher Luxon skips Ukraine call due to bad time zone

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon skipped a British and French-led virtual meeting to drum up support for Ukraine due to time zone differences.

He noted the call was 1am New Zealand time and went for “two or three hours”.

The call, held over the weekend, was attended by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had a slightly more convenient time zone.

“It was about one in the morning this morning, and I’ve been on many of the Coalition of the Willing calls and been asked to speak at them in the past,” Luxon said.

He said officials had represented NZ on his behalf.

Luxon often speaks of his ability to survive on little sleep.

In 2023, in an interview with More FM, Luxon said he can sleep as little as 3.5 hours each night. He said he typically goes to bed between 11pm and 1am.

“I don’t need a lot of sleep, I think I can function quite well. It’s just sometimes there’s a lot to do,” he said.

In Thames, also on the campaign trail, he told Stuff, he gets up at 4.30am every morning.

“I get up at 4.30 every morning. I go seven days a week,” he said.

Luxon said in the past few weeks he had spoken directly to Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Luxon said he “normally” goes to the meetings “whenever possible”.

“Our message is pretty clear. Russia could stop this today if it wished, by a ceasefire immediately.”

Labour leader and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it “would have been good if he could have attended”, but he accepted Luxon had “a lot to juggle”.

“I don’t want to politic over something like that, so he can speak for himself on that one.”

The call came after the summit in Alaska held between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

No peace agreements came out of that meeting, but the pair said progress had been made.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a score of European leaders, including Sir Keir and Macron, are expected in Washington DC in the coming hours for their own meeting with Trump.

Trump posted on social media earlier that Zelenskyy could “end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight”.

He said there would be “no getting back Obama given Crimea” and “NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE”.

Luxon said on Monday Ukraine “needs to be in those conversations”.

“There is no way a just and lasting peace is going to be achieved without Ukraine at the bargaining table.”