Ukraine war live: European leaders tell Putin to agree to unconditional ceasefire by Monday or face ‘massive’ sanctions | Europe

Keir Starmer has said UK experts and European partners are working to “boost Ukraine’s economy” in a bid to support the invaded country’s stability long-term, reports the PA news agency.

Speaking at the ‘coalition of the willing’ meeting in Kyiv on Saturday, the UK prime minister said “securing Ukraine’s future for the longer term” had been discussed, with measures including the resumption of flights to Ukraine.

Starmer said:

We want to help Ukraine look to the future with confidence.

So we’re working to boost Ukraine’s economy and, as a vital step, I’m pleased that UK experts have been on the ground leading work to support the resumption of flights into Ukraine.

He added:

Once a ceasefire is achieved it will take time but this will be a huge moment in reconnecting Ukraine’s economy, boosting investor confidence, and helping to reunite families separated by this war.

Ukraine secure and thriving: that is what we all want to see.

With our 100-year partnership, the critical minerals deal with the US, and our coalition of the willing, we are building the framework for peace in Ukraine to support a better future for the Ukrainian people, and to pledge once again in all our interests and on this anniversary, that aggression will never prevail on our continent.

The Kremlin accused European countries on Saturday of making contradictory and confrontational statements, Interfax news agency reported, after European leaders backed a US plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened Russia with “massive” sanctions if it failed to comply.

“We hear many contradictory statements from Europe. They are generally confrontational in nature rather than aimed at trying to revive our relations. Nothing more,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

Keir Starmer has said there is “absolute unity” of countries around the world on Ukraine, reports the PA news agency.

The prime minister said it “must be Russia that now comes forward and accepts this 30-day unconditional ceasefire”.

Speaking from Kyiv on Saturday, the prime minister was asked if he believes Vladimir Putin wants peace and why he thinks the threat of sanctions would work. Starmer replied:

There’s only one country that stands between peace, and that’s Russia.

He added:

The position we’ve now got to today is absolute unity across a whole range of countries around the world.

Starmer also said the leaders were “clear absolutely there must be an unconditional ceasefire for 30 days. Clear that that means it must be without conditions”.

In Kyiv, UK prime minister Keir Starmer addressed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying:

Volodymyr and the Ukrainian people, we stood with you in resisting Putin’s aggression but we must now stand with you in the fight for peace.

Putin has, in the last few hours, sought to put conditions on a ceasefire.

It’s really important that we make clear, an unconditional ceasefire is a ceasefire without conditions. We reject the imposition of conditions, and we need to be really clear about that.

It is for Russia to come to the table for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, and there must be clear sanctions if he fails to do so.

There is real unity on that. We need to be clear that that is one of the main outcomes we want from this meeting of the coalition of the willing, here this morning.

Volodymyr, you have our support in the fight that you have, you have our support in the fight for peace, as we go forward.

UK prime minister Keir Starmer said “one country started this illegal conflict” and “only one country stands in the way of resolving it peacefully” during a meeting of members of the “coalition of the willing” aimed at end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports the PA news agency.

Speaking from Kyiv, Starmer said:

It is an important moment because, as Volodymyr [Zelenskyy] has just said, there is this ceasefire-for-30-days proposal that is very clearly now on the table.

Volodymyr, I think you first – with courage – put forward this proposal probably two months ago now, as the way forward? Emmanuel [Macron] and I have been discussing it intensively, including this week, and pushing the case of 30 days.

Other allies in Europe have joined that, and of course the US position is now absolutely clear. So we have unity in relation to the proposal for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.

That is a really important moment of this conflict that we should focus on in this meeting of the coalition of the willing, and remind ourselves that only one country started this illegal conflict, and that was Russia and Putin, and only one country stands in the way of resolving it peacefully, and that is Russia and Putin.

British prime minister Keir Starmer said in a meeting in the Ukrainian capital with European leaders that the so-called “coalition of the willing” shows “the strength of our unity”.

Sitting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, Starmer said: “It’s really good that we are hosting this meeting – the coalition of the willing – from Kyiv.

“It is a very important symbolic meeting showing the strength of our unity.

“And it’s timely because this awful conflict has been going on now for over three years, and this week we have been celebrating 80 years since the end of the second world war, VE Day has been celebrated across Europe.

“What the war was about were the values of freedom and democracy and the right of countries to make their own decisions, their sovereign right to do so.

“Those are the same values that we are addressing here today, and so it is timely, it is important and I pay tribute to the courage and resilience of the Ukrainians that have fought this conflict for three long years.”

European leaders issue ceasefire ultimatum to Putin

Shaun Walker

European leaders on a joint visit Kyiv have issued an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin: sign up to an unconditional ceasefire by Monday, or face increased sanctions and weapons transfers to Ukraine.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland, together with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a joint phone call to Donald Trump prior to making the announcement.

“All of us here, together with the US, are calling Putin out. If he’s serious about peace, then he has a chance to show it now,” said prime minister Keir Starmer at a joint press conference of the five leaders in Kyiv.

Starmer said the leaders were demanding “an unconditional ceasefire, rejecting Putin’s conditions, and [are] clear that if he turns his back on peace, we will respond, working with president Trump, with all our partners, we will ramp up sanctions, and increase our military aid for Ukraine’s defence to pressure Russia back to the table”.

Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz arrived in the Ukrainian capital on the same train on Saturday morning, while Donald Tusk travelled on a separate train. The leaders met with Zelenskyy for talks in central Kyiv.

It is Macron’s first visit to Kyiv since summer 2022, and the first visit for Merz as chancellor for Germany, having only taken office this week.

“All five leaders had a fruitful call with @POTUS focused on peace efforts,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, wrote on X, adding a picture of the five men gathered around a mobile phone on speaker mode.

Sybiha added: “Ukraine and all allies are ready for a full unconditional ceasefire on land, air, and at sea for at least 30 days starting already on Monday. If Russia agrees and effective monitoring is ensured, a durable ceasefire and confidence-building measures can pave the way to peace negotiations.”

Trump and the US administration have said a 30-day ceasefire could be the first step on the way to a sustainable peace deal. Ukraine has said it is ready to implement such a ceasefire but Russia has so far refused, saying it would only do so if all western weapons deliveries to Ukraine were halted.

In an early sign that Russia may not be receptive to the latest ultimatum, the hawkish former president, Dmitry Medvedev, wrote on X: “Macron, Merz, Starmer, and Tusk were supposed to discuss peace in Kiev (sic). Instead, they are blurting out threats against Russia … You think that’s smart, eh? Shove these peace plans up your pangender arses.”

French president Emmanuel Macron warned on Saturday that Russia would face “massive” coordinated European and US sanctions if it broke a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine proposed by Kyiv’s western allies.

“In the event of a violation of this ceasefire, we have agreed that massive sanctions will be prepared and coordinated between Europeans and Americans,” Macron told a press conference in Kyiv.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at the news conference after their talks that he and the visiting leaders “agreed on Monday, 12 May there must start an unconditional ceasefire”.

He added that it should cover air, sea and land, and said that if Moscow refused, it would face new sanctions, including the strengthening of punitive measures targeting its energy and banking sectors, Reuters reported.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Friday that Russia supported the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire, but only with due consideration of “nuances”.

In remarks to ABC that were aired on Saturday, Peskov suggested that western military assistance for Ukraine would have to stop in order for a temporary ceasefire to happen. “Otherwise it will be an advantage for Ukraine,” he said.

Ukraine and European leaders agreed on Saturday to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from 12 May with the backing of US president Donald Trump, threatening president Vladimir Putin with new “massive” sanctions if he failed to comply.

The announcement was made by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Poland and Ukraine after a meeting in Kyiv, during which they held a phone call with Trump.

The symbolic show of European unity came a day after Russian president Vladimir Putin struck a defiant tone at a Moscow parade marking 80 years since victory in the second world war, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In an interview with the US news channel ABC on Saturday, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies would have to stop before Russia would agree to a ceasefire.

A truce would otherwise be an “advantage for Ukraine“ at a time when “Russian troops are advancing … in quite a confident way” on the front, Peskov said, adding that Ukraine was “not ready for immediate negotiations”.

Putin ordered a unilateral three-day truce from Thursday through Saturday. But a Ukrainian army brigade operating in the east told AFP earlier the intensity of fighting had remained “pretty much the same”.

Europe and Ukraine argue more pressure is needed on Russia to respond.

After meeting Donald Tusk in France on Friday, Emmanuel Macron called for the speedy drafting of a US-Europe plan for the 30-day truce that would be backed by “massive economic sanctions” if one side “betrays it”.