‘Ready right now’: Putin warns of war with Europe ahead of Ukraine talks

Lviv, Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in peace talks on Ukraine by declaring he was ready for war with Europe if its leaders launched a conflict, as his talks with US negotiators in Moscow drew no closer to a peace deal.

Putin appeared to harden his stance on a potential peace agreement going into the meeting, by warning European leaders to back down in their demands on the terms of the deal.

“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin told reporters in Moscow.

“They have no peaceful agenda, they are on the side of war.”

The comments heightened the divide over a potential deal as Putin began his talks with two of the key aides to US President Donald Trump over the war, starting their discussions on Tuesday night in Moscow (Wednesday, AEDT).

The meeting – with US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – ran for more than four hours and concluded at about 12.30am in Moscow (about 8.30am AEDT).

The talks were constructive, but much work remained, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters in Moscow after the meeting.

Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

Ushakov called the conversation “rather useful, constructive, rather substantive,” but added that the framework of the US peace proposal was discussed rather than “specific wording”.

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. That’s what’s been agreed upon. And contacts will continue,” the official said.

Putin’s aide also said that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis”.

“Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesn’t suit us. So, the work will continue,” Ushakov said.

There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. “We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didn’t hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals,” he said.

Ahead of the meeting, Putin also claimed progress against Ukraine in the ground war on the eastern front and threatened more attacks on the Ukrainian coast along the Black Sea in response to attacks on Russian ships.

Ukraine attacked two oil tankers carrying Russian crude on Saturday and has stepped up its attacks on the Novorossiysk export terminal on the Black Sea, in a sign of its capacity to inflict economic damage on Putin’s government.

Another tanker was attacked in the Black Sea on Tuesday and was said to be carrying sunflower oil, but Ukraine denied it was responsible.

While Russia has captured Ukrainian territory along the Sea of Azov, such as Mariupol and nearby cities, it has not gained control of the western part of the country, including the key port of Odesa.

“The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle,” Putin said in remarks aired on television before the peace talks began in Moscow.

Witkoff and Kushner met Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who declared after the talks that the US sought an outcome that would ensure Ukraine’s long-term security.

The pair then flew to Moscow for their talks with the Russian leader, while Trump said in Washington that the war in Ukraine was a “mess” and not an easy situation to resolve.

The talks in Moscow come after European leaders pushed back at the Trump administration’s draft peace plan, which was seen as favouring Russia because it ceded territory to Russia, capped the size of the Ukrainian military, removed sanctions on Russia, and sought to bar Western troops from acting as peacekeepers in Ukraine.

Europe sought a higher cap on the Ukraine armed forces and opposed the rapid removal of sanctions, but there is no agreement on the final text and no clarity on the security “guarantee” that is meant to deter Putin from waging further attacks after a ceasefire.

NATO foreign ministers meet in Brussels this week, but Rubio will not attend, raising concerns about the US commitment to the defence alliance. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte dismissed those concerns at a press conference on Tuesday (early on Wednesday, AEDT).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the possibility that Trump might lose interest in the talks on the war and leave Ukraine exposed to further assault from Russia.

“Yes, I am afraid. If somebody from our allies is tired, I’m afraid,” he said when asked about this possibility.

“It’s the goal of Russia to withdraw the interest of America from this situation.”

Zelensky declared that Ukraine wanted peace, but he also held out against any outcome that gave Russia an incentive for waging war.

“One strong country can start a war, another strong country can stop the war, but to restore justice and defend what’s right, we need a community, a world made up of many different nations,” he said.

“One can inspire everyone else, and that is why Ukraine is fighting for every voice in the world.”

In an address to the Irish parliament during an official visit on Tuesday, Zelensky described the war with Russia as a fight that other countries also needed to win to avoid future aggression.

“The aggressor must be held accountable for what was done. This has gone on far too long to simply close our eyes and turn the page on Russia,” he said.

With Reuters, AP

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