The British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and the French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot both said during a NATO meeting that Vladimir Putin’s forces are still striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Both ministers have accused Putin of “dragging” his feet over the US negotiations to start a ceasefire.
The ministers confirmed that military chiefs from France and the UK will travel to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv to discuss deploying troops to Ukraine to help maintain the ceasefire.
Barrot said, “Over the past three weeks, Russia has been flip flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes.
“There will at some point be a need for military capacity or reassurance, whenever peace is reached and this is the reason why our army chiefs will be in Kyiv today in order to advance this work.”
The British Foreign Secretary said, “Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet. He could accept a ceasefire now, but he continues to bombard Ukraine, its civilian population, its energy supplies.
“We see, Vladimir Putin. We know what you’re doing.”
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Both Moscow and Kyiv are blaming each other for striking energy infrastructure, and Russia has been accused of targeting their own electricity sub stations to accuse Ukraine.
Lammy said, “We are pledged to continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, militarily, economically.
“And we continue to bear down the sanctions on Russia, so that they are willing to come to this negotiation actually serious about making the peace that we want to see.”
The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said they do take Washington’s ceasefire proposal “seriously” but they will not accept it “as they are now,” therefore the war will continue.
It is quite clear Vladimir Putin is deliberately dragging his feet and his intention is to take more Ukrainian territory in an attempt to successfully negotiate with the US President to force Ukraine to cede all occupied territory.
Ryabkov said during an interview with Russian magazine International Affairs Journal, “We have not heard a signal from Trump to Kyiv to end the war.
“All that exists today is an attempt to find some kind of a scheme that would first allow us to achieve a ceasefire, as the Americans think of it.”
The US President Donald Trump has threatened Putin with “secondary tariffs” he does not “make a deal” to end the war.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “I want to see (Putin) make a deal, so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed.
“I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil.
“But I think, you know, it’s something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job.”
