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Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused European allies of deliberately sabotaging US-led peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine.
Getting into it: Putin made the comments ahead of a closed-door Kremlin meeting with a US delegation, claiming European governments were actively obstructing progress toward ending the war. “They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” he told reporters, accusing European leaders of inserting “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia” into peace proposals, which he argued was effectively “blocking the entire peace process” while shifting blame onto Russia. Putin also said that while Russia has no intention of initiating hostilities against Europe, he warned that “If Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that.”
The comments came just before Putin met with US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The American delegation is in Moscow seeking to advance Trump’s proposed peace framework, which originally consisted of 28 points but was recently trimmed to 20 after talks in Florida with Ukrainian officials. The discussion between the US delegation and Putin is expected to focus on unresolved issues such as territorial control and security guarantees.
This all comes as EU nations have expressed increasing frustration with being excluded from the core of peace negotiations. Many fear that the US-led framework disproportionately reflects Russian interests and may pressure Ukraine into territorial concessions.
While all of this is going on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been on a diplomatic blitz across Europe, urging leaders to remain engaged and warning of Russian efforts to manipulate the talks.
