Friday, March 28, 2025 - Ukraine’s European allies say now is not the time for lifting sanctions on Russia, after Moscow said it would only agree to a US-brokered deal on ending fighting in the Black Sea if some sanctions were eased.
The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany all affirmed at a
summit on Thursday, March 27 that Europe will not lift sanctions on Russia – a
strong and seemingly coordinated message to the Trump administration, which has
said it is evaluating the Kremlin’s demands that sanctions be lifted.
They spoke after a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris
which discussed how to bolster support for Kyiv and what role they might play
if a peace deal is struck with Russia.
“(There is) complete clarity that now is not the time for lifting of
sanctions,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
“Quite the contrary – what we discussed is how we can increase sanctions
to support the US initiative, to bring Russia to the table through further
pressure from this group of countries,” the British Prime Minister said, still
striking a conciliatory tone toward the United States.
Starmer said the meeting involved more than 30 countries, including
Ukraine’s European allies and NATO officials. He described the meeting as “very
constructive.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said stopping sanctions would be a
“serious mistake.”
“It makes no sense to end the sanctions until peace has actually been
achieved, and unfortunately we are still a long way from that, as you can see.”
“There was absolute clarity that Russia is trying to delay, is playing
games. And we have to be absolutely clear about that,” Starmer added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also called for “more pressure”
and “more packages of sanctions” on Russia.
“All 31 votes today supported that there will be no lifting of any
sanctions against Russia until this war ends in a just peace,” Zelensky said in
a press conference from Paris.
Zelensky also called for unity amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s
desire to “divide Europe and America.”
“We want America to be stronger. I agree with Emmanuel (Macron) that we
all need it. It’s not even a matter of desire, but we need America to be
stronger in relation to Russia,” the Ukrainian president said.
“Putin wants to negotiate over territory from a stronger position. He’s
thinking only about war,” Zelensky said earlier in a social media post.
“They’re dragging-out the talks and trying to get the US stuck in
endless, pointless discussions about fake ‘conditions’ just to buy time and
then try to grab more land,” Zelensky added, highlighting that Ukrainian
intelligence indicates Russian forces are getting ready for new offensives
against the Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.
This week the US announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to end
fighting in the Black Sea but Moscow soon followed up the statement by saying
it would only implement the deal once some of the sanctions imposed on Russian
banks and exports over its invasion of Ukraine are lifted.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the United States
is “going to evaluate” Russia’s conditions to agreeing to a Black Sea partial
ceasefire.
When the US negotiators return from Saudi Arabia, Rubio said, they will
be “sitting down, going through the proposals, getting their impressions of the
conversations, so we can more fully understand what the Russian position is, or
what their ask is in exchange.”
France also shed more light on a proposal to send forces drawn from
European armies to Ukraine in the event that a ceasefire is reached.
France and the United Kingdom previously floated the idea of sending
peacekeepers to Ukraine and said they would be willing to put boots on the
ground. But their latest discussions have honed in on an alternate term:
“reassurance forces.”
“These would be forces from a number of states … present in strategic
locations pre-identified with the Ukrainians which would provide long-term
support, reassurance for the armies and act as a deterrent to potential Russian
aggression,” Macron said Thursday, adding that the forces would never serve as
a “substitution for the Ukrainian army.”
Regarding support for the “reassurance forces,” Macron said: “It was not
unanimous today, as we all know, and we don’t need unanimity.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said allies discussed the
possibility of the United Nations playing a part in enforcing a ceasefire, but
underlined that Italian forces would not participate in a possible military
force deployed in Ukraine.
0 Comments