Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelensky to speak as Trump envoy lands in Moscow for talks with Putin
Europe’s demands ‘not acceptable’ to Russia, Putin says ahead of talks with Witkoffpublished at 15:22 GMT
Laura Gozzi
Europe reporter
It’s past 18:00 in Moscow but Putin and Witkoff have not yet met. Until a short while ago Putin was giving a speech at an investment forum elsewhere in the capital, where inflation and the Russian banking sector was discussed.
When he wrapped up the speech he left without taking any questions from the room. But as he was leaving he spoke to journalists who had gathered in the lobby of the trade centre.
Asked about European involvement in the peace talks on Ukraine, he said that Europe had “pulled itself out of the European settlement” and accused Europeans of having “no peaceful agenda” – and of instead hindering efforts by the US to solve the conflict.
He also said that Europe’s demands for the end of the war were “not acceptable” to Russia. Then, he added: “We are not going to fight with Europe, I have already said this a hundred times. But if Europe wants to fight with us, we are ready to do so right now.”
Kyiv’s European partners have been pushing for a seat at the negotiating table and have been particularly insistent on security guarantees for Ukraine that would help ensure it doesn’t come under attack again.
In his final point on Europe, Putin added: “This is not Ukraine. In Ukraine we act with surgical precision, in an accurate way. So? That’s not war in the real, in the modern sense of that word.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 towns, cities and civilian infrastructure have come under repeated attack by the Russian army. According to figures shared by the UN last month, there have been more than 53,000 civilian casualties, including 14,534 deaths, since 2022.
Image source, Rossiya24
