Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies Tuesday of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the nearly 4-year-old war in Ukraine.
“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said after speaking to an investment forum and before he met in the Kremlin with a US delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Putin’s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.
“They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said of the Europeans in comments to reporters. He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process,” only to blame Russia for it. “That’s their goal,” Putin said.
He reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe -- a concern regularly voiced by some European countries. “But 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,” Putin said.
Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to
support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force. They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.
Trump’s peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine,
even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan. That’s why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address European concerns, too. Speaking with Putin via a translator before the talks, Witkoff said he and Kushner had taken “a beautiful walk” around Moscow and described it as a “magnificent city.” m
Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against
Russia’s invasion.