Vladimir Putin will “think through” a Western proposal for a full and unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, after Britain, the US and European allies threatened to send more weapons to Kyiv if Russia did not comply.
Sir Keir Starmer told Vladimir Putin that there should be “no more ifs and buts” and that he must agree to a truce or face further sanctions on its energy and banking sectors.
The ultimatum was made after a meeting in Kyiv, where the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland, together with Volodymyr Zelensky, spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump.
“All of us here, together with the US, are calling Putin out. If he’s serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it now,” Sir Keir said at a press conference afterwards.
In response, the Kremlin said it will “think through” the proposal, without committing to sign anything.
“We have to think this through. It is a new development,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, said. “But trying to pressure us is quite useless.”
Our live coverage of events in Ukraine and Russia has now ended for today. Thank you for reading.
Turkey is ready to “observe” a possible ceasefire in Ukraine, its foreign minister said during a call with Kyiv and its allies, according to a Turkish foreign ministry source.
The leaders of Ukraine, Britain, France, Germany and Poland demanded Vladimir Putin agree to a 30-day ceasefire beginning on Monday. They threatened “massive” new sanctions if Russian leader failed to comply.
Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, joined a call with the five leaders when they met in Kyiv today and emphasised his country’s commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Mr Fidan was said to have voiced Ankara’s support for the unconditional ceasefire and added that Turkey was ready to help in observing the truce if it is established.
It was not clear if this would mean Turkish troops deployed in Ukraine to enforce the pause in fighting.
Sir Keir Starmer told Vladimir Putin that there should be “no more ifs and buts” and that he must agree to a 30-day ceasefire.
Ukraine and European leaders have agreed to an unconditional 30-day truce with the backing of US President Donald Trump, threatening President Vladimir Putin with new “massive” sanctions if he failed to comply.
The announcement was made by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Ukraine in Kyiv, after they held a phone call with Mr Trump. The US leader, who wants a rapid peace, has not commented publicly on the course of action.
“So all of us here together with the US are calling Putin out. If he is serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it,” Sir Keir said afterwards.
“No more ifs and buts, no more conditions and delays.”
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine and its allies are waiting for Russian’s response after demanding Putin agree to a 30-day ceasefire beginning on Monday.
“We share a common view: an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire is needed for at least 30 days,” the Ukrainian president wrote in a post on X. “We propose it begin on Monday, May 12. We are waiting for Russia’s response.”
Mr Zelensky added that he and Sir Keir Starmer – as well as the leaders of France, Germany and Poland – had spoken with Donald Trump at the end of a meeting in Kyiv today, and that it was a “good conversation – positive and concrete”.
The 30-day ceasefire proposal was first put forward by the United States during peace talks in Saudi Arabia.
The Kremlin accused European countries of making contradictory and confrontational statements, after leaders demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened Russia with “massive” sanctions if it failed to comply.
“We hear many contradictory statements from Europe. They are generally confrontational in nature rather than aimed at trying to revive our relations. Nothing more,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, told reporters.
Vladimir Putin “has repeatedly said that he is ready for contacts with any leaders”, Peskov said. “And he is open to interaction, to dialogue with any leaders to the extent that the leaders themselves are ready.”
On Friday Peskov was quoted as saying that Russia supported the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire, but only with due consideration of “a large number of nuances”.
In separate remarks aired on Saturday, he suggested that Western military assistance for Ukraine would have to stop in order for a ceasefire to happen. “Otherwise it will be an advantage for Ukraine,” he said.
Emmanuel Macron ruled out agreeing to halting military aid to Kyiv, saying the proposed ceasefire would have no preconditions.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, ruled out agreeing to halt military aid to Ukraine during a potential 30-day ceasefire period.
“There is no precondition. Neither stopping delivery of arms to protect and resist for you [Ukraine],” he told Volodymyr Zelensky.
The French president said if Russia did not “comply” with the proposed ceasefire, “it must face consequences with additional sanctions and further support to Ukraine”.
“And we have to prepare a new package of sanctions which should not be business as usual,” he added.
Mr Macron was earlier asked what Ukraine and its allies would do if Russia demanded a halt on military aid to Kyiv as a condition for agreeing to the proposed truce.
Russia has repeatedly rejected the idea of a month-long ceasefire, saying the West would use the break in fighting to rearm Ukraine.
Sir Keir Starmer said supporting Ukraine is about the same values that the Allies fought for in the Second World War.
“This week we have been celebrating 80 years since the end of the Second World War,” the Prime Minister said at a meeting in Kyiv.
“What that war was about were the values of freedom and democracy and the right of countries to make their own decisions. Their sovereign right to do so.”
“Those are the same values that we are addressing here today.”
Sir Keir Starmer said “one country started this illegal conflict” and “only one country stands in the way of resolving it peacefully” during a meeting of Ukraine and its allies in Kyiv.
Speaking from Kyiv, the Prime Minister said: “It is an important moment because, as Volodymyr has just said, there is this ceasefire-for-30-days proposal that is very clearly now on the table.
“Volodymyr, I think you first — with courage — put forward this proposal probably two months ago now, as the way forward? Emmanuel [Macron] and I have been discussing it intensively, including this week, and pushing the case of 30 days.
“Other allies in Europe have joined that, and of course the US position is now absolutely clear. So we have unity in relation to the proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
“That is a really important moment of this conflict that we should focus on in this meeting of the coalition of the willing, and remind ourselves that only one country started this illegal conflict, and that was Russia and Putin, and only one country stands in the way of resolving it peacefully, and that is Russia and Putin.”
Sir Keir Starmer said the meeting in Kyiv between Ukraine and European allies showed “the strength of our unity”.
“It is a very important symbolic meeting showing the strength of our unity,” the Prime Minister said.
“And it’s timely because this awful conflict has been going on now for over three years, and this week we have been celebrating 80 years since the end of the second world war, VE Day has been celebrated across Europe.
“What the war was about were the values of freedom and democracy and the right of countries to make their own decisions, their sovereign right to do so.
“Those are the same values that we are addressing here today, and so it is timely, it is important and I pay tribute to the courage and resilience of the Ukrainians that have fought this conflict for three long years.”
Sir Keir Starmer said that European allies “together with the US” are “calling Putin out”, as they attempted to ramp up pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire.
Speaking from Kyiv, the Prime Minister said that allies will “ramp up sanctions” if the Russian president “turns his back on peace” as he and allies backed plans for a 30-day ceasefire.
The Prime Minister and his Ukrainian, French, German and Polish counterparts spoke with Donald Trump earlier on Saturday to update him on their progress on the so-called coalition of the willing.
Speaking from Kyiv, he said the five leaders in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday had agreed on the need for an “unconditional ceasefire”.
The Prime Minister said “all of us here, together with US, are calling Putin out”.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said: “What’s happening with Poland, Germany and Great Britain is a historic moment for European defence and toward a greater independence for our security.
“Obviously, for Ukraine and all of us. It’s a new era. It’s a Europe that sees itself as a power.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday there was “absolute unity” between Kyiv’s allies on a proposed 30-day ceasefire with Russia.
“The position we’ve now got to today is absolute unity across a whole range of countries around the world, including the United States, that there must be that 30-day unconditional ceasefire,” Starmer told a press conference in Kyiv.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned Saturday that Russia would face “massive” coordinated European and US sanctions if it broke a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine proposed by Kyiv’s Western allies.
“In the event of a violation of this ceasefire, we have agreed that massive sanctions will be prepared and coordinated between Europeans and Americans,” Macron told a press conference in Kyiv.
Russia will reportedly close its airspace over a suspected Oreshnik ballistic missile launch site from May 12-13, raising fears Vladimir Putin is preparing a major attack on Ukraine.
A notice about the airspace closure over the Kapustin Yar training and launch complex was published on the US Defence Department’s Notice to Airmen website on May 10, Ukrainian defence news outlet Militarnyi reported.
It came after the US embassy in Kyiv last night issued a rare security alert warning of a potential “significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days”.
The Oreshnik is an experimental intermediate-ballistic missile equipped with six warheads that can be fitted with a conventional or nuclear payload. Its speed and manoeuvrability make it extremely difficult to intercept.
It was first used in combat in November in an attack on Dnipro, however it appeared to have been fitted with inert munitions.
Russia and North Korea have a “blood-sealed bilateral relationship”, Kim Jong-un said as he visited Moscow’s embassy in Pyongyang to celebrate Victory Day on Friday.
The North Korean dictator said he wanted to congratulate Russia on the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, “and celebrate this historic day with the Russian friends”.
The two countries have a “blood-sealed bilateral relationship [that] will continue to be in its heyday in the future, making a perfect demonstration of its inexhaustible potential in all realms”, Kim was quoted as saying by state media.
He said it took only 80 seconds for him to travel to the embassy from the Korean Workers’ Party headquarters, which reminded him of 80 years of “spiritual intimacy” between Pyongyang and Moscow since the end of the Second World War.
“Thanks to Comrade President Putin’s outstanding foresight and decision, the Korea-Russia relationship has regained its original features befitting allies and made the choice which could not be substituted by anything else for all its fate.”
Russia will face much tougher sanctions if it refuses a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the West, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said in an interview published on Saturday.
If Putin does not agree to the truce, “there will be a massive hardening of sanctions and the massive aid to Ukraine will continue – politically, of course, but also financially and militarily,” Mr Merz told the Bild newspaper.
“We agree with the US government, with Donald Trump. We are demanding a 30-day ceasefire so that peace negotiations can be prepared during this period,” he said.
“The ball is now in Putin’s court. Putin must respond to this offer.”
The Kremlin has said it is not worried by Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement of new sanctions on Russia.
“We have already become accustomed to sanctions, we can already even imagine what we will do after these sanctions are announced, how we will minimise their consequences,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, was quoted by Russian state media as saying.
Scaring Russia with the threat of new restrictions was a waste of time, Peskov added.
Downing Street on Friday said it was planning the “largest ever” sanctions package on Russia’s shadow fleet, which transports the Kremlin’s oil across the world.
The Kremlin said Russia’s Victory Day parade in Moscow on Friday made Europe “nervous”.
“Europeans are nervous about what is happening in Moscow on May 9,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin press secretary, was quoted as saying by Russian state media.
He added: “Europeans are nervous about the large international consolidation around Victory Day.
“And the large international consolidation around pride in that victory over fascism and for the liberation of the world from fascism.”
Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister, says his country wants to develop relations with Russia, and derided those in the European Union who he said created obstacles to his attendance at Second World War commemorations in Moscow.
Mr Fico broke ranks with the EU by visiting Moscow late last year, more than two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin late on Friday evening following the Red Square parade marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.
China’s Xi Jinping was among several dozen leaders at the commemorations, but nearly all Western leaders stayed away.
Fico arrived after a circuitous journey made necessary by EU members’ barring his aircraft from their airspace.
“As a head of government, I want to assure you that it is in my interest to have pragmatic relations with the Russian Federation,” Russian news agencies quoted Fico as telling Putin.
He said he opposed the creation of any new “iron curtain and pledge to do everything so that we can shake hands across a curtain”.
“Let us consider as a childish joke all the technical problems we confronted, created by our European Union colleagues.”
Putin said Russia appreciated Fico’s decision to attend despite the “logistical obstacles that were created. But you are nonetheless here.”
Russia would require a halt to US and European arms supplies to Ukraine during any potential ceasefire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with ABC News.
“Otherwise it will be an advantage for Ukraine. Ukraine will continue their total mobilisation, bringing new troops to (the) frontline,” Peskov said.
“Ukraine will use this period to train new military personnel and to give a rest to their existing ones. So why should we grant such an advantage to Ukraine?”
US President Donald Trump urged Russia and Ukraine on Friday to “get this stupid war finished”, as he pushed for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine says it is willing to agree to.
But Peskov, in the interview, restated Russian concerns that Putin had made public as far back as March 13 and set out in a phone call with Trump on March 18.
“A ceasefire was supported by President Putin, but he asked several questions. He said that right now we have certain dynamics on the front, Russian troops are advancing, and advancing in quite a confident way,” he said.
“So if we speak about ceasefire, what are we going to do with shipments of weapons coming every day from the United States and from European countries?”
The Ukrainian president has posted a slick video on social media of his busy morning with the European leaders.
We commemorated the warriors who gave their lives for our freedom and Ukraine's independence.
Eternal glory and gratitude to the heroes — those who are no longer with us, but who will forever remain in our hearts. Eternal memory to those who gave their lives defending Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/6goudUUGhk
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday for “direct talks” between Ukraine and Russia in the event of a ceasefire in Moscow’s three-year invasion.
If there is a 30-day truce, as Western countries have floated, “we will look to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia, we are ready to help,” Macron said in an interview with French news outlets TF1 and LCI while travelling to Kyiv to meet European leaders.
Before any meetings this morning, the leaders have paid their respects to the victims of war at the Memorial for the Fallen at the Independence Square in Kyiv.
The grownups meet in Kyiv today to deal with Putin and his excitement over his parade
A peace deal and ceasefire seem far away, but there is a suggestion that the wind may be about to change.
Read Hamish’s full piece here.
Their visit to Kyiv is designed to expose Putin as a barrier to peace as he continues to resist American, Ukrainian and European calls to sign up to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
The three leaders will also convene a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” that plans to defend Ukraine’s airspace and seas and train Kyiv’s armed forces to deter future Russian attacks following any peace deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have arrived in Kyiv.
The three arrived by train from Poland. They are dut to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky, along with Polish premier Donald Tusk.
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