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US president claims progress made in his two-hour call with Putin, but repeats his threats to abandon efforts at brokering peace
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Vladimir Putin is “trying to buy time” to continue his war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned, after Donald Trump insisted progress had been made after his two-hour call with the Russian president.
Despite Mr Trump saying negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would begin “immediately”, the Kremlin quickly poured cold water on the US president’s optimistic statements, saying “there are no deadlines and there can’t be any”.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, repeated his threat to abandon efforts to broker peace, insisting that he has a “red line in my head” on when he will walk away and saying: “This is not my war.”
Engaging in a flurry of diplomacy with calls to Kyiv’s allies on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said he accepted that “there is no doubt that the war must end at the negotiating table”, but warned that Russia must face tough sanctions if it “continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress”.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued along the front line, with Ukraine reporting 177 combat clashes and claiming to have inflicted more than 1,000 casualties upon Russia over the past 24 hours.
The UK has insisted that its new raft of 100 sanctions will “protect Ukrainian lives, and our collective security by disrupting Russia’s military machine”.
According to the Foreign Office, the new measures sanction the supply chains of deadly Russian weapons systems, including the Iskander missiles used in the Palm Sunday attack on Sumy which killed 34 people.
They also target 46 financial institutions accused of aiding Russian attempts to evade sanctions, as well as the St Petersburg Currency Exchange, and the Russian Deposit Insurance Agency which insures Russian banks. “These new sanctions will further isolate the Russian economy and disrupt Russia’s revenue streams,” the Foreign Office said.
The UK is also sanctioning 18 more ships in the so-called “shadow fleet” carrying Russian oil, along with the fleet’s enablers, the Foreign Office said, in a move which follows 110 shadow fleet-related sanctions previously announced by Sir Keir Starmer ahead of his visit to Kyiv earlier this month.
Britain is also levelling sanctions against 14 further members of Russia’s Social Design Agency across all levels of the organisation, which the Foreign Office accused of carrying out Kremlin-funded information operations “designed to undermine sovereignty, democracy, and the rule of law in Ukraine and across the world”.
The UK government has announced a new raft of 100 sanctions on targets across Russian military, energy, financial sectors and those conducting Vladimir Putin’s information war against Ukraine.
Announcing the new measures after Russia launched its largest ever drone strike on Ukraine, Britain’s foreign secretary David Lammy said: “Putin’s latest strikes once again show his true colours as a warmonger.
“We urge him to agree a full, unconditional ceasefire right away so there can be talks on a just and lasting peace.
“We have been clear that delaying peace efforts will only redouble our resolve to help Ukraine to defend itself and use our sanctions to restrict Putin’s war machine.”
Vladimir Putin is “trying to buy time” to continue his war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.
Writing on social media after a phone call with his Finnish counterpart, in which they discussed Donald Trump’s phone call on Monday with Mr Putin, the Ukrainian president said that “diplomacy aimed at peace must be well-coordinated and focused on tangible outcomes”.
Mr Zelensky said: “It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation. We are working with our partners to ensure that pressure forces Russians to change their behavior. Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone making them more biting for those responsible for this war.
“There is no doubt that the war must end at the negotiating table. The proposals on the table must be clear and realistic. Ukraine is ready for any negotiation format that delivers results. And if Russia continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress, there must be tough consequences.
“More conversations with our partners are scheduled for today.”
The Independent’s foreign affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Vladimir Putin isn’t saying “no” to the demands from around the world that he accepts an unconditional 30-day ceasefire as proposed by Ukraine and endorsed by the Trump administration. He’s not saying “yes” either – and he’s yanking Trump’s chain.
First, said Putin, the two countries would have to define a possible ceasefire, including its timeframe. The offer is defined as “stop shooting” and the timeframe is “now”, but the Russian leader shrugged.
The US president has begun to understand that he’s appearing feeble. When it comes to Putin he has always been weak. He’s tried to butch up in social media posts but when he’s got the man himself on the phone, all efforts to take control fail him.
The EU and its non-US allies are planning to tighten oil sanctions on Russia later this week, they have already increased their own defence spending and are giving Ukraine more military aid than America. They know the calls from the Kremlin are worth nothing, no matter how much Trump enjoys them.
Read the full analysis here:
German defence minister Boris Pistorius has warned that Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine – which killed at least one person and injured 13 others overnight – speak louder than Vladimir Putin’s “lip service” to peace.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU ministers, Mr Pistorius said: “We have seen massive attacks again in recent days … These speak louder than the lip service we have heard for so long.
“Putin is clearly playing for time. Unfortunately we have to say Putin is not really interested in peace.”
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot accused Putin of hypocrisy, and warned that the EU must impose harsher sanctions on Russia.
“I believe that when Vladimir Putin continues to uphold his hypocritical language, everyone has understood that he will carry on with his colonial war to the end if we do not put a stop to it,” said Mr Barrot, adding: “Let us push Vladimir Putin to put an end to his imperialist fantasy by adopting sanctions that are truly dissuasive.”
Russia has outlawed Amnesty International, designating it an “undesirable organisation” and criminalising involvement with the human rights group in the country.
This move, announced on Monday by the Russian prosecutor general’s office, further intensifies the Kremlin’s crackdown on dissent, which has escalated dramatically since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The ban effectively shuts down Amnesty’s operations within Russia and threatens anyone cooperating with or supporting the organisation with prosecution.
My colleague Albert Toth reports:
One person has been killed and six injured by Russian attacks in Donetsk which forced the evacuation of more than 250 people, Ukraine’s regional governor has said.
The fatality came in Siversk, where five houses were damaged, governor Vadym Filashkim said, with injuries also reported in Kramatorsk.
In Kharkiv, two women aged 45 and 73 were wounded in a Russian attack on the village of Starovirvka, the regional governor said, while five further injuries were reported following Russian strikes in Kherson said to have damaged a high-rise building and seven houses.
Russia has released a Greek-owned oil tanker which was detained in Russian waters on Sunday, and the vessel has resumed its journey towards the Dutch port of Rotterdam, according to Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR.
The Liberia-flagged Green Admire appeared to be underway in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday with its destination listed as Rotterdam, Reuters reported, citing LSEG ship tracking data.
The vessel was detained after leaving the Sillamae port in Estonia and using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the Estonian foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Estonia’s foreign minister has said Russia’s detention of the Green Admire was likely a response to a campaign by the Estonian navy to inspect tankers used to transport millions of barrels of Russian oil through the Baltic Sea.
While it is “very positive” that the Donald Trump administration is involved in the Ukraine peace effort, it is crucial that Europeans and Ukraine are consulted as well, Nato chief Mark Rutte has warned.
The head of the Western military alliance made his remarks ahead of a meeting with European ministers in Brussels.
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