{"id":138132,"date":"2025-05-20T13:45:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-says-putin-buying-time-after-trump-threatens-red-line-over-peace-talks-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T13:45:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T13:45:14","slug":"ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-says-putin-buying-time-after-trump-threatens-red-line-over-peace-talks-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-russia-war-latest-zelensky-says-putin-buying-time-after-trump-threatens-red-line-over-peace-talks-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky says Putin \u2018buying time\u2019 after Trump threatens \u2018red line\u2019 over peace talks – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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<\/a> is \u201ctrying to buy time\u201d to continue his war in Ukraine<\/a>, Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has warned, after Donald Trump<\/a> insisted progress had been made after his two-hour call with<\/a> the Russian president.
Despite Mr Trump saying negotiations between Kyiv<\/a> and Moscow<\/a> would begin \u201cimmediately\u201d, the Kremlin<\/a> quickly poured cold water on the US president\u2019s optimistic statements<\/a>, saying \u201cthere are no deadlines and there can\u2019t be any\u201d.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, repeated his threat to abandon efforts to broker peace, insisting that he has a \u201cred line in my head\u201d on when he will walk away and saying: \u201cThis is not my war.\u201d
Engaging in a flurry of diplomacy with calls to Kyiv<\/a>\u2019s allies on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president said he accepted that \u201cthere is no doubt that the war must end at the negotiating table\u201d, but warned that Russia<\/a> must face tough sanctions if it \u201ccontinues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress\u201d.
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.
Two Russian Tu-95M strategic bombers carried out a scheduled flight over international waters in the Barents Sea, which borders Norway, Moscow\u2019s defence ministry has said.
The planes were escorted by flight planes belonging to an unnamed foreign country for part of the flight, which lasted more than four hours, Russian state news agencies cited the ministry as saying.
The European Union \u2013 which has today adopted a 17th package of sanctions against Russia \u2013\u00a0needs to start working on its 18th package on the same day, Lithuania\u2019s foreign minister K\u0119stutis Budrys has warned.
The EU\u2019s newly announced 17th package targets nearly 200 ships in Russia\u2019s so-called shadow fleet of vessels accused of helping Moscow to evade sanctions on crude oil.
Europe must commit to defending itself without the United States, a Scandinavian drone defence company has warned, urging the continent to prepare to act independently in today\u2019s \u201cnew era of conflict\u201d.
Karl Rosander, CEO of Nordic Air Defence, told The Independent<\/em> that the US \u201ccan no longer be relied upon unconditionally for Europe\u2019s defence, and it\u2019s increasingly clear that it is not ready for the way warfare is evolving\u201d.
\u201cEurope must be prepared to act independently,\u201d he added. \u201cIf you can\u2019t defend your country, you have no country.\u201d
Mr Rosander warned that the defence of Europe must come down to the whole continent, \u201cnot just the Scandinavian and Baltic countries directly in the firing line\u201d.
\u201cWe cannot wait for our calls to help to fall on deaf ears. One of the keys to this is a resilient, homegrown defence-tech industry so we can adapt to the changing nature of warfare,\u201d he added.
Poland\u2019s foreign minister has warned that Europe is \u201cfacing an existential choice\u201d and must be prepared for Donald Trump to wash his hands \u201cnot only of Ukraine, but even of Europe\u201d.
Arguing that \u201cthe most reasonable and respectable approach is to treat whatever the US president says both literally and seriously\u201d, Rados\u0142aw Sikorski wrote in an opinion piece for non-profit outlet Project Syndicate<\/em>: \u201cGiven the current state of the world, this implies that Europe faces an existential choice.
\u201cWe can enter the global game united, as a heavyweight competitor, or we can condemn ourselves to marginalisation.\u201d
He added: \u201cDeterring Russia is not beyond our means. We don\u2019t need to match US military capabilities; rather, we just need enough to force Putin to reconsider his chances of winning in a confrontation with a united European community of democratic nation-states.\u201d
Ukrainian politicians criticised the Trump administration\u2019s approach to negotiating a ceasefire, in a meeting today between the UK and Ukrainian foreign affairs committees.
Ukrainian MP Mariya Ionova, member of the committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation, said: \u201cIn Trump\u2019s team, there are no diplomats. It\u2019s all businessmen. And that\u2019s why we hear \u2018deal, deal, deal\u2019. If a democracy is a deal, if territorial integrity is a deal, we will never accept it.\u201d
Ms Ionova also took aim at US special envoy Steve Witkoff for misinformation around Ukraine, questioning why the official had visited Moscow, but never Kyiv.
\u201cWhy is he only going to Russia? Let him come to Ukraine, no problem. If he has any questions, we are ready to answer,\u201d she told the committee.
She added: \u201cWe are not hiding anything \u2013 please go ahead. Meet with the hostages, and they will tell you under what conditions they were [held] in Russian prisons.\u201d
Vladimir Putin is playing Donald Trump \u201clike a violin\u201d, a former British foreign secretary and leader of the Conservative Party has warned.
Asked whether he believes Mr Trump could give up on his push for peace, Lord William Hague said: \u201cI think he is very close to that, which is the exact opposite of what a negotiator should do, because in successful peace negotiations you need a powerful peace negotiator to come along and say, \u2018I\u2019m not going until you two have agreed\u2019, and then really apply themselves to it and say \u2018if this takes months, I\u2019m staying here\u2019.
\u201cThis is the opposite. This is: \u2018if you don\u2019t agree, I\u2019m off.\u2019 That, of course, is exactly what Putin wants. So Putin is playing him totally … flattering him, sending him a portrait, having long phone calls with him, saying no doubt how wise he is, and so on \u2013 and then doing nothing until he goes away.
\u201cThat is the Putin strategy. At the moment it\u2019s working, and it\u2019s astonishing that a president of the United States can fall for that so easily but he is being played like a violin,\u201d Lord Hague\u00a0\u2013 who is now the chancellor of Oxford University \u2013 told Times Radio.
\u201cIt is alarming to see because it just underlines that there is a serious risk that Ukraine will be almost entirely dependent on support from Europe, including Britain, rather than from the United States.
Following Vladimir Putin\u2019s phone call with Donald Trump, the Russian foreign ministry has claimed that Ukraine must now decide whether or not it will cooperate in discussing a memorandum ahead of a future peace accord that Moscow has proposed.
Despite Mr Trump saying negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow would begin \u201cimmediately\u201d, the Kremlin quickly poured cold water on the US president\u2019s optimistic statements, saying \u201cthere are no deadlines and there can\u2019t be any\u201d.
And the Kremlin warned earlier that the process for Moscow and Kyiv to develop a unified text of a peace and ceasefire memorandum would be complex. Ukraine has repeatedly called for a ceasefire before proper peace talks can begin.
Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s chief of staff has warned that, \u201cunfortunately, following the Trump\u2013Putin phone call, the status quo has not changed\u201d.
Writing on social media, Mikhailo Podolyak warned that Russia \u201cstill seeks war, destruction, and killing \u2013 believing them to be the only means of preserving its current state,\u201d accusing Moscow of being \u201cunwilling and categorically refusing\u201d to accept a ceasefire.
The chief presidential aide added: \u201cThere is also this obsessive search for the so-called \u2018root causes of the war\u2019, even though the only real cause is the simple fact of Russia\u2019s unprovoked aggression.\u201d
\u201cUkraine continues to offer the only realistic path out of the war \u2013 through an immediate and unconditional ceasefire \u2013 comprehensive, long-term, and binding,\u201d said Mr Podolyak, adding: \u201cThe United States remains a global mediator \u2013 still assuming that Russia is capable of negotiating and willing to end the war for the sake of business or strategic interests.\u201d
The European Union has adopted new sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, zeroing in on Moscow\u2019s \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of oil tankers, human rights violations and hybrid threats, the bloc\u2019s foreign policy chief said.
\u201cThe EU has approved its 17th sanctions package against Russia, targeting nearly 200 shadow fleet ships,\u201d Kaja Kallas said on social media.
\u201cMore sanctions on Russia are in the works. The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response.\u201d
The UK also announced fresh sanctions targeting Russia\u2019s so-called \u201cshadow fleet\u201d of tankers which seek to circumvent a G7 price cap on Russian crude oil imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The G7 cap was designed to allow Russian oil to be sold to third countries using Western insurance services provided the price was no more than $60 a barrel. The move has started to bite and the EU will push for a lower price cap this week during a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Canada.
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