The leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland, on their first joint visit to Ucrine, said on Saturday that Russia would face “new and massive” sanctions to their banking and energy sectors if President Vladimir V. Putin refused a total, in accordance. Accept.
Hours later, Mr. Putin brushed that demand aside and requested instead of direct conversations between Russia and Ukraine that will be held in Türkiye.
Putin, talk to journalists in an unusual statement after 1 in the morning on Sunday, said Russia was “prepared for serious negotiations with Ukraine” and “without previous conditions.” The proposal of a meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, without specific who would participate in the conversations.
He did not directed the European call for a high 30 -day fire, but indicated that Russia would not stop fighting before the negotiations on May 15, if they happen.
“The point is to eliminate the fundamental causes of the conflict,” Putin said. “We do not rule out that in the course of thesis negotiations, it will be possible to reach some new bruises, in a new and a real one in that.”
In kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Prime Minister Keir Starmer or Great Britain held a press conference with President Emmanuel Macron de France, Foreign Minister Friedrich Merz or Germany, Prime Minister Donald Tusk or President Volodymyr Zelensky or Ukraine.
“We are all calling Putin outside,” said Starmer. “If peace is taken seriously, then you have the opportunity to show it now.”
Starmer said the European effort, which requires a truce to begin on Monday, had closely coordinated the leg with the White House.
A senior American official, talks about a history due to the lack of authorization to discuss negotiations, said President Trump had his leg in contact with European leaders during the week, in the period prior to the announcement in kyiv, and has indicated. Starmer and Mr. Macron on Saturday morning supported their proposal of sanctions in the absence of a high fire for Monday.
Trump also does not oppose the United States to help monitor a high fire, but did not make firm commitments about what he would imply or require, said the official. White House officials emphasized that Trump has left sanctions on the table repeatedly, even in a recent position in the truth of the truth.
The Trump administration proposes the 30 -day fire, to which kyiv agreed, duration of this spring in Saudi Arabia.
The competing proposals of kyiv and Moscow are the last instance in which both Russia and Ukraine have tried to position themselves and seeking peace in the midst of Trump’s efforts to end the war. Ukraine first agreed for a high 30 -day fire in March, but Mr. Putin no, instead established onerous conditions, such as stopping Western military aid to kyiv.
In recent weeks, Mr. Putin has repeatedly asked for direct conversations between Russia and Ukraine, although Sunday’s comments were the most extensive in the matter. Ukraine has also said that he is ready for negotiations, but there are no direct conversations that have tasks in the place, as far as it is known.
The last time that Ukraine and Russia dedicated themselves publicly to Peace Conversations was in Istanbul in March 2022. Mr. Putin said Sunday that the proposed meeting of May 15 could serve as a continuation of those Istanbul conversations three years ago, in which Russia sought to limit the size of the Ukraine military, in addition to prohibiting the country to join.
The earliest Saturday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, published a photograph of the five curly leaders around a telephone. Sybiha said they were talking to Trump.
“Ukraine and allies are ready for a high unconditional fire on land, air and sea for at least 30 days from Monday,” Sybiha wrote on social networks. “If Russia agrees and an effective monitoring is guaranteed, a durable fire and trust construction measures can pave the path to peace negotiations.”
Before the European leaders gave their press conference, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, dismissed the threat of new sanctions, says the Russian station Rossiya-1 that the country was “accustomed to the measures of the Congress”
He had previously said that Russia opposed any fire unless Western nations stopped providing military aid to Ukraine, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
The visit of the European leaders to kyiv, who began with a solemn tribute to the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the battle, while the men placed flowers in an improvised memorial, occurred one day after the celebration of Russia of the 80th anniversary of the allied victory over Nazí Germany in World War II. In that celebration, Mr. Putin welcomed President Xi Jinping of China and other foreign dignitaries to Moscow for a military parade destined to project the power of Russia and the prayer of Mr. Putin to remodel the global order in its terms.
The two events crystallized both the changing contours of the war in Ukraine and the broader geopolitical change since Trump entered the position. In just a few months, Trump has reversed the central principles of the foreign policy of the United States, and presents the tissue of the transatlantic bond that helped Europe on the road to peace after the cataclysm of World War II.
At the moment, Ukraine is trapped between a Mobldende Russia, promoted by China, North Korea and Iran, and a Europe that struggles to fill the void left by the United States.
It has bone more than 120 days since the United States announced a new round of military assistance to Ukraine. It is still an uncle if the Trump administration plans to spend the $ 3.85 billion remover that Congress has authorized for additional retreats from the reserves of the defense departments.
Ukraine is running to develop his production of domestic weapons and his European allies have increased their military assistance. Even if Russia accepts fire, Ukraine and its allies believe that the only way to guarantee lasting peace is through military force.
But next week it will prove whether European resolution and resources can match the scale of the challenge as the war result becomes more and more the problem of Europe.
Most of the pressure that Washington has led to Bear to end the fight has been addressed to kyiv, he thought Trump has recently shown flashes or frustration with Moscow.
Daniel Fried, former diplomat and member of the United States in the Atlantic Council in Washington, said there was hope that US and European policies in Ukraine converge, but many evidence remained.
“The moment of truth” will come, he said, if Putin rejects the high fire of 30 days. And then, if there is a stop the fire, he said, the next test can arrive if Russia violates the truce.
“What will be the response of the United States?” Hey said.
Maggie Haberman New York contributed reports.
