Western sanctions on Russia need to be increased, not weakened, in order to bring it to the negotiating table, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The prime minister accused Vladimir Putin of “playing games and playing for time” after the Russian president demanded sanctions are lifted before a maritime ceasefire with Ukraine is enacted.
“Now is not the time for pulling back or weakening sanctions – now is the time to increase sanctions to get them to the table,” Starmer said in Paris, where he is meeting European leaders.
The so-called “coalition of the willing” summit follows separate talks held by the US with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators, which led to a a ceasefire in the Black Sea being agreed.
Starmer said on Thursday that there needed to be a “framework and a deadline” for Ukraine peace talks.
He said he had agreed with partners at the summit, which hosted representatives from 30 nations as well as the European Union and Nato, that “we must go further now to support the peace process, support Ukraine and increase the pressure on Russia to get serious”.
“It means increasing the economic pressure on Russia, accelerating new tougher sanctions, bearing down on Russia’s energy revenues, and working together to make this pressure count,” he said.
Starmer said that the political mood to find a just and lasting peace in Ukraine was “stronger and broader” than it had ever been, adding that “Europe as a whole has not been this strong and united in a long time”.
Speaking with Ukraine’s President Zelensky earlier, Starmer accused Russia of “continuing to inflict devastating attacks on the Ukrainian people” and said Putin’s promises were “hollow”.
Zelensky said that everybody at the meeting understood “that Russia doesn’t want any kind of peace”, and that they would discuss security guarantees in the coming weeks and days.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of breaking the terms of a separate, tentative deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure.
Shortly after Washington announced the Black Sea deal, the Kremlin said it would not take effect until sanctions were lifted on Russian banks, producers and exporters involved in the international food and fertiliser trades.
The concessions demanded by Russia include reconnecting the banks connected to the Swift payment system, lifting restrictions on servicing ships under the Russian flag involved in the food trade, and revoking sanctions on the supply of agricultural machinery and other goods involved in food production.
US President Donald Trump said the US government was “looking at” Moscow’s request – but the EU said it would not consider removing sanctions before the “unconditional” withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory.
Speaking after a meeting with Macron on Wednesday, Zelensky said he hoped the US – which is not a part of the coalition of the willing – would “stand strong” in the face of Russian demands to lift sanctions.
The French president said that if a European force protecting a ceasefire in Ukraine came under attack, it would “respond to it”.
“If there was again a generalised aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would be under attack, and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” he said.
“Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it.”
European officials say that under any peace settlement, Ukraine’s first line of defence against any future Russian attack would be its own army.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a European force in Ukraine would risk a “direct clash between Russia and Nato”, state-owned news agency Tass reports.
“London and Paris continue to nurture the idea of a military intervention into Ukraine. All of that is being cloaked under [the guise of] a certain peacekeeping mission,” Zakharova said.
She added Russia was “categorically against such a scenario”.
