Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s response to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine is \u201cnot good enough,\u201d Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, after hosting a virtual summit aimed at drumming up support for Kyiv and piling pressure on Russia. <\/p>\n
After hosting a meeting of the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d \u2013 a group of Western nations that have pledged to help defend Ukraine against Russia \u2013 Starmer said leaders had agreed that \u201cthe \u2018yes but\u2019 from Russia is not good enough\u201d and that Russia would have to come to the negotiating table sooner or later. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe agreed collective pressure will be put on Russia from all of us who were in the meeting this morning,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s meeting involved some 25 countries, including European nations, the EU Commission, NATO, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky. <\/p>\n
After Kyiv this week accepted the terms of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine \u2013 endorsed by US President Donald Trump \u2013 Moscow\u2019s response was ambiguous, with Putin saying that \u201cwe agree with the proposal\u201d but also that the deal \u201cwasn\u2019t complete.\u201d <\/p>\n
The meeting also comes at a critical time in the three-year war, with Russia advancing in its Kursk border region where it is attempting to reverse Ukraine\u2019s gains. <\/p>\n
While he offered few new details, Starmer announced that the militaries of Ukraine\u2019s allies will meet in the United Kingdom on Thursday, to \u201cput strong and robust plans in place\u201d to keep the peace in the event a ceasefire is struck in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will now move into an operational phase,\u201d Starmer said. \u201cOur militaries will meet on Thursday this week here in the United Kingdom to put strong and robust plans in place to swing behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine\u2019s future security.\u201d <\/p>\n
During Saturday\u2019s talks, Starmer said that Ukraine\u2019s allies agreed to \u201ckeep the military aid flowing to Ukraine, and keep tightening restrictions on Russia\u2019s economy, to weaken Putin\u2019s war machine and bring him to the table.\u201d <\/p>\n
Starmer said that Putin was delaying the US-backed ceasefire proposal that Ukraine agreed to this week, and that Ukraine \u201cis the party of peace.\u201d <\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump \u201chas offered Putin the way forward to a lasting peace \u2013 now we must make this a reality,\u201d Starmer said. <\/p>\n
Responding to a question from a journalist about US support, Starmer stressed that the \u201cposition on the US hasn\u2019t changed,\u201d and that achieving peace in Ukraine \u201cneeds to be done in conjunction with the United States.\u201d <\/p>\n
It comes after Starmer said in opening remarks to the \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d that \u201cif Putin is serious about peace, it\u2019s very simple: He has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire.\u201d He continued, \u201cThe world is watching. My feeling is that sooner or later he\u2019s going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussion.\u201d <\/p>\n
The \u201ccoalition of the willing,\u201d a group of who have pledged to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in the face of dwindling and uncertain support from Washington, last met in London two weeks ago before reconvening Saturday for the virtual meeting. <\/p>\n
Although Europe has shown considerable unity amid the blows the Trump administration has dealt to the transatlantic alliance, significant divisions remain over whether individual European countries are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to keep the peace. <\/p>\n
A statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni\u2019s office said that Meloni, who joined Saturday\u2019s virtual summit, does not envisage Italy\u2019s participation in a possible military presence in Ukraine. <\/p>\n
Trump said Friday that he got \u201cpretty good news\u201d on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, without elaborating, and that his administration had \u201cvery good calls\u201d with both countries earlier in the day. <\/p>\n
In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said \u201cthere is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.\u201d <\/p>\n
Putin met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow \u2013 a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave \u201creason to be cautiously optimistic.\u201d <\/p>\n
With Kyiv losing its grip on the western Russian region of Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on the ceasefire proposal until the region is firmly back under Russian control. <\/p>\n
Russian forces have retaken two more settlements in Kursk \u2013 Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina \u2013 its defense ministry claimed on Saturday. It comes days after Russia recaptured the key town of Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine had occupied in the region. <\/p>\n
Zelensky said Saturday his troops were holding back Russian and North Korean forces in Kursk and denied Russian claims that Ukraine\u2019s army was surrounded. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile the aerial assaults continued, with hundred of drones crossing the border. <\/p>\n
Russia fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 44, according to Ukrainian officials. The two were killed in Kherson region, the head of its military administration said, after Russia targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings, damaging seven high-rise buildings and 27 houses. <\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, without saying how many drones bypassed its defenses. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s response to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine is \u201cnot good enough,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}