The leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland, during their first joint visit to Ukraine, said on Saturday that Russia would be confronted with “new and massive” sanctions in its banking and energy sectors if President Vladimir V. Putin refused to design a complete and unconditional judgment of 30 days.
A few hours later, Mr. Putin brushed this request aside and rather called for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine who stand in Türkiye.
Mr. Putin, addressing journalists in an unusual statement after 1 a.m. on Sunday, said that Russia was “prepared for serious negotiations with Ukraine” and “without any prerequisite”. He proposed a meeting between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, without specifying who would participate in talks.
He did not directly approach the European call for a 30-day ceasefire, but said that Russia would not stop fighting before negotiations on May 15, if they occur.
There was no immediate response from Ukraine early on Sunday, but about an hour after Mr. Putin’s press conference, the authorities reported an attack on Russian drones that sparked air alerts in several cities, including kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
“The goal is to eliminate the deep causes of the conflict,” said Putin. “We do not exclude that in the context of these negotiations, it will be possible to reach an agreement on new trèvres, on a new ceasefire, and a real to that.”
In kyiv, on Saturday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain held a press conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Germany, Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland and President Volodyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
“We all call Putin,” said Starmer. “If he is serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it now.”
Starmer said that the European effort, who calls a truce to start on Monday, had been coordinated in close collaboration with the White House.
A senior American civil servant, speaking on the history due to a lack of authorization to discuss negotiations, said that President Trump had been in contact with European leaders throughout the week, during the announcement to kyiv, and that he reported to Mr. Starmer and Mr. Macron on Saturday morning that he supported his proposal for sanctions absent from a stop of Monday.
Trump is also not opposed to the United States to monitor a ceasefire, but have not made solid commitments on what it would imply or demand, said the official. Officials of the White House pointed out that Mr. Trump had left sanctions on several occasions A recent social article of truth.
The Trump administration proposed the 30-day ceasefire, to which kyiv accepted this spring in Saudi Arabia.
The competing proposals of kyiv and Moscow are the last case in which Russia and Ukraine have sought to position itself as looking for peace in the midst of Mr. Trump’s efforts to end the war. Ukraine first accepted a 30-day ceasefire in March, but Mr. Putin did not make, instead, athletic conditions such as the cessation of Western military aid in kyiv.
In recent weeks, Mr. Putin has repeatedly called for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, although Sunday’s comments have been the most extensive in this area. Ukraine also said that it was ready for negotiations, but no direct conversation took place, as far as we know.
The last time that Ukraine and Russia were publicly engaged in peace talks, it was in Istanbul in March 2022. Mr. Putin said on Sunday that the proposed meeting of May 15 could serve as a continuation of these talks in Istanbul three years ago, in which Russia sought to limit the size of the military of Ukraine in addition to prohibiting the country with NATO.
Earlier on Saturday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrii Sybiha, published a photograph of the five leaders huddled around a phone. Mr. Sybiha said they were talking to Mr. Trump.
“Ukraine and all allies are ready for a complete unconditional ceasefire on land, tunes and at sea for at least 30 days to leave Monday”, Mr. Sybiha written on social networks. “If Russia agrees and effective surveillance is ensured, a sustainable cease-fire and confidence strengthening measures can pave the way for peace negotiations.”
Before European leaders gave their press conference, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, rejected the threat of new sanctions, Russian diffuser Rossiya-1 that the country was “used to such pressure measures and knows how to minimize their consequences”.
He had previously declared that Russia had remained opposed to any cease-fire unless Western nations are constantly providing military aid to Ukraine, according to Russian news agency TASS.
The visit of European leaders in kyiv – who began with a solemn tribute to the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers killed in combat, while men threw flowers during a makeshift memorial – one day came after the celebration of Russia from the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. During this celebration, Mr. Putin welcomed President Xi Jinping de China and other foreign dignitaries in Moscow for a military parade intended to project the power of Russia and Mr. Putin’s attempt to reshape the World Order according to his conditions.
Currently, Ukraine is taken between a Russian embraced, supported by China, North Korea and Iran, and a Europe which has difficulty filling the void left by the United States.
It has been more than 120 days since the United States announced a new series of military aid in Ukraine. It is not clear if the Trump administration plans to spend the remaining $ 3.85 billion that the congress authorized for additional stocks of the Ministry of Defense.
Ukraine rushes to build its production of interior weapons and its European allies have increased their military aid. Even if Russia accepts a ceasefire, Ukraine and its allies believe that the only way to ensure lasting peace is by military force.
But the coming weeks will test if the resolution and European resources can correspond to the scale of the challenge as the result of the war is increasingly becoming the problem of Europe to be solved.
Most of the pressure that Washington has exerted to put an end to the fighting was directed against kyiv, although Mr. Trump recently showed lightning of frustration with Moscow.
Daniel Fried, a former American diplomat and colleague at the Atlantic Council in Washington, said that there was hope that American and European policies on Ukraine were convergent, but many tests remained.
“The moment of truth,” he said, he said, if Mr. Putin refuses the 30-day ceasefire. And then, if there is a ceasefire, he said, the next test could take place if Russia violates the truce.
“What will be the American answer?” He said.
Maggie Haberman contributed New York reports, and Andrew E. Kramer from Kyiv.
