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EU: Putin Feigning Interest in Peace 12/03 06:23
Ukraine and its European allies accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on
Wednesday of feigning interest in peace efforts after five hours of talks with
U.S. envoys at the Kremlin produced no breakthrough.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine and its European allies accused Russian
President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday of feigning interest in peace efforts
after five hours of talks with U.S. envoys at the Kremlin produced no
breakthrough.
The Russian leader "should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to
come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace," said U.K. Foreign
Secretary Yvette Cooper. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged Putin
to "stop wasting the world's time."
The remarks reflect the high tensions and gaping gulf that remain between
Russia on one side and Ukraine and its European allies on the other over how to
end a war that Moscow started when it invaded its neighbor nearly four years
ago.
A day earlier, Putin accused the Europeans of sabotaging the U.S.-led peace
efforts -- and warned that, if provoked, Russia would be ready for war with
Europe.
Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022, European governments, along with the
U.S., have spent billions of dollars to support Kyiv financially and
militarily. Under President Donald Trump, however, the U.S. has tempered its
support -- and instead made a push to end the war.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin spokesman said he wouldn't discuss the substance
of the talks but pushed back on any suggestion that Putin had rejected the U.S.
peace plan.
Where the peace talks go from here depends largely on whether the Trump
administration decides to increase the pressure on Russia or on Ukraine to make
concessions.
Unclear where peace talks go now
A U.S. peace proposal that became public last month was criticized for being
tilted heavily toward Moscow because it granted some of the Kremlin's core
demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters.
Many European leaders worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it
will have free rein to threaten their countries, which already have faced
incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread
sabotage campaign.
Putin met Tuesday in Moscow with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law
Jared Kushner. The Russian and American sides agreed not to disclose the
substance of the talks, but at least one major hurdle to a settlement -- the
fate of four Ukrainian regions Russia partially seized and occupies and claims
as its own -- remains.
After the talks, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to Putin, told reporters
that "so far, a compromise hasn't been found" on the issue of territory,
without which, he said, the Kremlin sees "no resolution to the crisis."
Ukraine has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has captured.
Asked whether peace was closer or further away after these talks, Ushakov
said: "Not further, that's for sure."
"But there's still a lot of work to be done, both in Washington and in
Moscow," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that it was "not correct" to
say that Putin had rejected the U.S. peace plan. He declined to comment further
on the talks.
"We're deliberately not going to add anything," he said. "It's understood
that the quieter these negotiations are conducted, the more productive they
will be."
Europeans step up assistance for Ukraine
Foreign ministers from European NATO countries, meeting in Brussels on
Wednesday, showed little patience with Moscow.
"What we see is that Putin has not changed any course. He's pushing more
aggressively on the battlefield," Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna
said. "It's pretty obvious that he doesn't want to have any kind of peace."
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen struck the same note. "So far we
haven't seen any concessions from the side of the aggressor, which is Russia,
and I think the best confidence-building measure would be to start with a full
ceasefire," she told reporters.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Ukraine's partners will keep sending
it military aid to ensure pressure is maintained on Moscow.
"The peace talks are ongoing. That's good," Rutte said.
"But at the same time, we have to make sure that whilst they take place and
we are not sure when they will end, that Ukraine is in the strongest possible
position to keep the fight going, to fight back against the Russians," he said.
Canada, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands announced that they will spend
hundreds of millions of dollars more together to buy U.S. weapons to donate to
Ukraine.
This year, European countries in NATO and Canada began buying American
weapons for Ukraine under a financial arrangement known as the Prioritized
Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL.
The war claims more lives
Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a grim war of attrition on the battlefield
and are using drones and missiles for long-range strikes behind the front line.
Many analysts have noted that the slow slog favors Russia's larger military,
especially if disagreements between Europe and the U.S. or among Europeans
hampers the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.
Russian drones hit the town of Ternivka in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region,
killing two people and injuring three more, the head of the regional military
administration, Vladyslav Haivanenko, said Wednesday.
Two people were in critical condition, he said, after the attack destroyed
one house and damaged six more.
Overall, Russia fired 111 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight,
Ukraine's air force said.
Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Defense said Wednesday that air defenses
destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil depot in the Tambov region,
about 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Moscow, local Gov. Yegveniy Pervyshov
said.
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