Pressure for Russia to agree a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine is growing with President Vladimir Putin told to “get serious about peace” by Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy who has hosted a key group of European countries pressing for an end to the fighting.
Russia is now facing the prospect of more intense and economically damaging sanctions from America if it continues to drag its feet on agreeing to a ceasefire and talks.
Key to getting Mr Putin to agree to any ceasefire will come from President Donald Trump, who is travelling to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the country that hosted the first peace talks.
Already he has pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into agreeing face-to-face talks with Mr Putin in Turkey on Thursday.
But it currently appears that the Russian leader is reluctant to enter into dialogue as he is unwilling to stop the fighting while making territorial gains in Ukraine, albeit at a high cost in men and equipment.
Pressure for that onslaught to stop grew over the weekend when the leaders of France, Germany, Britain and Poland visited Kyiv in a show of unity calling for “a full, lasting and reliable” 30-day ceasefire from Monday, as a condition for opening direct talks.
That momentum continued into Monday with Mr Lammy hosting the Weimer Plus group of countries in London, that included ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the EU.
“This is the time for Vladimir Putin to get serious about peace in Europe, to get serious about a ceasefire and to get serious about talks,” Mr Lammy said at the meeting.
He warned that European countries must “be prepared if this is not the moment of seriousness from Putin and we do not get that peace”.
Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, declared that “there cannot be talks under fire” and that a ceasefire must be implemented first.
“It takes two to want peace,” she added. “It takes only one to want war. And we see that Russia clearly wants war.”
The Weimar Plus group was set up in February in response to shifting US policy towards the war in Ukraine and European security under Mr Trump.
While ignoring calls for a ceasefire, Mr Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday. Mr Zelenskyy offered to meet Putin personally in Turkey, but did not say whether he would still attend if Russia refused the European ceasefire proposal.
Germany also stated that Russia should agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine by close of play on Monday or face potential new sanctions
But Mr Putin remains insistent that a deal will effectively mean Ukraine’s full surrender, demanding a return to the 2022 Istanbul protocols draft agreement, which included terms that would have left Ukraine helpless to defend itself against potential future Russian aggression.
“Putin is rejecting the joint US-Ukrainian-European proposal for a general ceasefire and instead continues to demand Ukrainian surrender in an attempt to secure his strategic goals by drawing out negotiations while continuing to make battlefield gains,” the Institute for the Study of War think tank concluded.
