UK, France accuse Putin of delaying Ukraine ceasefire efforts

BRUSSELS (AP):

The UK and French foreign ministers on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, and demanded a swift response from Russia after weeks of US efforts to secure a truce.

A Russian drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, killed five civilians and dramatised the diplomatic insistence on a ceasefire. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.

Some of the 32 wounded, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.

“Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. “We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace.”

Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting.

“Our judgement is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia’s real intentions in the negotiations will become clear within weeks.

“We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it’s a delay tactic,” Rubio told reporters. “Now we’ve reached the stage where we need to make progress.”

A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump administration officials said Friday that further meetings would be needed to resolve outstanding issues.

Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that “the dialogue will take some time, but it’s proceeding positively and constructively”.

He criticised what he called a “well-coordinated media campaign and attempts by various politicians to spoil Russia-US relations, distort what Russia says, and cast Russia and its leaders in a negative way”.

Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was sanctioned by the Biden administration after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The US had to temporarily lift the restrictions to allow him to travel to Washington this week.

Civilian areas in three other Ukrainian regions were also hit in Russian attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 78 strike and decoy drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defences destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.

“We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing,” Lammy said.