Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was “ready” for war if Europe sought it, accusing the continent’s leaders of trying to sabotage a deal on the Ukraine conflict before meeting with US envoys.
The comments came as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Moscow for high-stakes talks on ending the nearly four-year war, which were preceded by days of intense diplomacy.
“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to do it and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin told reporters in Moscow.
“They don’t have a peaceful agenda, they are on the side of war,” he added, repeating his claim that European leaders were hindering American attempts to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
He added that the European changes to Trump’s latest plan to end the war “point only to one thing: completely blocking the entire peace process and putting forward demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia.”
Washington presented a 28-point draft to end the conflict, later amended after criticism from kyiv and Europe, which considered it responded to many of Russia’s maximalist demands.
Trump defends the plan to end the war, but European countries fear that it risks forcing kyiv to give in to Russian demands, especially on territorial matters.
Fearing further Russian aggression, Europe has repeatedly said that an unjust peace should not be imposed on Ukraine.
Trump’s envoys now seek to finalize the plan with the approval of Moscow and kyiv.
