Kyiv, Ukraine (AP)-Managers of four major European countries have threatened to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin if he does not accept an unconditional 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine that they offered on Saturday in a strong unit demonstration with kyiv.
The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland said their proposal for a cease-fire to start on Monday was supported by US President Donald Trump, whom they had informed of the phone earlier during the day.
There was no immediate response from Moscow, whose own three-day unilateral ceasefire said for the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany expires on Saturday. Ukraine affirms that the Russian forces have violated it several times. In March, the United States proposed an immediate and limited truce of 30 days, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin held terms more to his taste.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing journalists alongside European leaders in kyiv, described their meeting as “very important signal”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the United States would take the lead in the monitoring of the proposed ceasefire, with the support of European countries, and threatened “massive sanctions … prepared and coordinated between Europeans and the Americans”, if Russia violated the truce.
Macron went to kyiv with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“It is Europe that intensifies, showing our solidarity with Ukraine,” said Starmer.
Retirement Lieutenant Kellogg retired, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said on Saturday that a 30-day “complete” ceasefire, covering air, earth, sea and infrastructure attacks, “will start the process to end the largest and longest war in the Second World War.”
Europe threatens more sanctions if Russia ignores the ceasefire offer
The progress in finishing the three -year war seemed elusive in the months following Trump’s return to the White House, and his previous allegations of imminent breakthroughs failed to materialize. Trump has already prompted Ukraine to give in the territory to Russia to end the war, threatening to leave if an agreement becomes too difficult.
Since the start of mediated talks by the United States, Russia has maintained attacks along the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), Including fatal strikes on residential areas without obvious military targets.
The ceasefire would include a stop of the fighting on land, the sea and in the air. European leaders have threatened to take sanctions, especially in the Russia energy and banks, if Putin did not comply.
The priority was to make Russia too expensive to continue fighting in Ukraine, said Ukrainian Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha.
When asked how the surveillance mechanism would work, Sybiha told the Associated Press that the details were still being discussed.
Tackling skepticism as to whether new sanctions against Moscow, which has so far succeeded in continuing to fight during the war, Merz has said: “Almost all the member states of the European Union and a large coalition of the will in the world are determined to apply these sanctions even if our weekend initiative should fail.”
Managers also discussed security guarantees for Ukraine.
kyiv’s military capacity building will be a key means of deterrent against Russia and will require Ukraine quantities of robust weapons to dissuade future attacks and invest in its defense sector. A force composed of foreign troops could also be deployed as an additional measure of “comfort”, said Macron.
He said details on potential European deployment in Ukraine were still refined. No mention was made to membership in NATO, still kyiv’s first choice for a security guarantee.
Earlier on Saturday, European leaders joined a ceremony in place of kyiv’s independence marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. They lit candles alongside Zelenskyy in a Memorial of the fortune flag For soldiers and Ukrainian civilians who have fallen into account since the invasion of Russia.
Russian attacks continue
On Saturday morning, local officials of the northern region of Sumy in Ukraine said that the Russian bombing in the last day had killed three residents and had wounded four others. Another civilian died on site on Saturday while a Russian drone hit the southern city of Kherson, according to the regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
Trump said last week that he doubted Putin wanted to end his War in Ukraineexpressing a new skepticism that a peace agreement can be contacted soon, and alluded to other sanctions against Russia.
Ukraine’s European allies consider its fate as fundamental for the security of the continent, and pressure is now rising to find ways to support kyiv militarily, that Trump retires.
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The editors of the Associated Press Thomas Adamson in Paris, Philipp Reissfelder in Berlin and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.
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Follow the coverage of war by the AP in Ukraine in https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
