WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

EU, Britain go ahead with new Russia sanctions without waiting for Trump

The EU and Britain announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday without waiting for Washington to join them, a day after President Donald Trump's phone call with Vladimir Putin brought about neither a ceasefire in Ukraine nor fresh U.S. sanctions.

London and Brussels said their new measures would zero in on Moscow's "shadow fleet" of oil tankers and financial firms that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions imposed over the war.

"Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram.

He said it "would be good" if the United States added its help, adding: "It is important that America remain involved in the process of bringing peace closer."

The sanctions were unveiled without an immediate announcement of corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense public lobbying from European leaders for the Trump administration to join them if Russia rejected a ceasefire.

"We have repeatedly made it clear that we expect one thing from Russia - an immediate ceasefire without preconditions," German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on the sidelines of a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels.

As Russia had not accepted a ceasefire, "we will have to react," he said. "We also expect our U.S. allies not to tolerate this."

Trump told reporters on Tuesday he was deliberating over what actions to take, but gave no further details.

"We're looking at a lot of things, but we'll see," he said.

In a two-hour conversation with Putin on Monday, the U.S. president dropped his earlier insistence on an unconditional 30-day ceasefire and signalled that the war he once promised to end in 24 hours was no longer his to fix - a message that leaves Ukraine vulnerable and its allies worried.

Asked on Monday why he had not imposed fresh sanctions to push Moscow into a peace deal, Trump said that could make the situation worse and affect the chance of a deal, while adding: "But there could be a time where that's going to happen."

Trump said after talking to Putin he had told Zelenskiy and European leaders that Russia and Ukraine would immediately start negotiations on conditions for a ceasefire, a process Russia said would take time.

Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in more than three years on Friday at Trump's behest, but failed to agree a truce after Moscow presented conditions that a member of the Ukrainian delegation called "non-starters".

POPE WILLING TO HOST TALKS

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday that Pope Leo had confirmed to her his willingness to host in the Vatican the next round of negotiations to try to end the war.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that Putin had not received any real concessions in the U.S. effort to initiate talks and existing U.S. sanctions on Russia remained in place.

"The president ... believes that right now, you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there's value in us being able to talk and drive them to get to the table. We'll see," Rubio said.

Ukraine says it is ready for an immediate ceasefire. The Europeans say Russia's insistence on talks first is proof that Putin, who started the war by invading his neighbour in 2022, is not prepared to end it.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said a further package of sanctions was being prepared.

"It's time to intensify the pressure on Russia to bring about the ceasefire," she wrote on X.

RUSSIA SAYS IT WILL NOT BOW TO ULTIMATUMS

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia would never bow to what she called ultimatums.

Putin said on Monday that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord. "Now, accordingly, the ball is in Kyiv's court," Zakharova said.

Brussels and London signalled they have not given up hope of persuading Washington.

"Let us push Vladimir Putin to put an end to his imperialist fantasy," France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said.

Britain's Foreign Minister David Lammy said "delaying peace efforts will only redouble our resolve to help Ukraine to defend itself and use our sanctions to restrict Putin's war machine".

The latest sanctions are aimed mainly at cracking down on a shipping fleet Russia uses to export oil, circumventing a $60 a barrel price cap imposed by the G7 group of industrialised countries to limit Russia's income.

Britain and the EU said they would also work to lower the cap, which imposes far less of a discount on Russian oil now that global prices have fallen this year.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has ‘one last chance’ – Medvedev

Authorities in Kiev have one last opportunity to preserve some kind of statehood after the Ukraine conflict inevitably resolves, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said, urging Kiev to engage in peace talks.

Speaking at an international legal forum in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Medvedev - who serves as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council - admitted that Moscow doesn’t like the current political regime in Kiev “at all.”

Nevertheless, he suggested that Ukraine’s leaders have “one last chance to preserve, under certain conditions, after the end of military actions, some kind of statehood or, if you like, some kind of international legal personality and gain a chance for peaceful development.”

Though the Ukrainian government lacks any sovereignty and is a failed “quasi-state” in its current form, Moscow remains open to holding unconditional direct peace negotiations that would take into account the current realities on the ground and address the root causes of the conflict, Medvedev stated.

Moscow is concerned that there are currently no individuals in Ukraine that have the legal authority to sign any sort of a peace deal with Russia, he noted. This concern mainly has to do with the fact that a treaty signed by the current leadership could subsequently be rejected once a new government in Ukraine is elected, he explained.

Zelensky’s presidential term officially expired last year, and he has since repeatedly held off holding new elections, citing the conflict with Russia and martial law.

While Moscow has questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s leader, last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov signaled that the Russian side may overlook his status in order to resume peace negotiations.

”The interests of entering the peaceful settlement process are above all else,” Peskov said, stressing that “the primary goal is to begin this negotiation process,” while all other questions are “secondary.”

Last week, delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul, marking their first direct talks since Kiev unilaterally abandoned the peace process in 2022. The head of Russia’s negotiating team in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, later said the two parties had agreed to conduct a prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs from each side, and to continue contacts once both have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals.

Reuters/RT