Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country is committed to ending the war with Russia but he urged dozens of European leaders to ramp up sanctions if President Vladimir Putin continues to play for time in talks aimed at securing a truce.
Russia and Ukraine were holding their first direct peace talks in three years, in the Turkish port city of Istanbul, but officials and observers expected them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than three-year war, AP reports.
Russia-Ukraine war is top of the agenda as European leaders meet in Albania on security concerns
“Ukraine is ready to take all realistic steps to end this war,” Zelenskyy told leaders gathered for a summit of the European Political Community. But he warned: “If it turns out that the Russian delegation really is just theatrical and can’t deliver any results today, the world must respond.”
That reaction, he said, should include "sanctions against Russia’s energy sector and banks.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed his call, saying in a summit speech that “Russia is dragging its feet and playing games.”
“We must be prepared to follow through because if Russia won’t come to the negotiating table, Putin must pay the price,” he said, at the summit in the Albanian capital, Tirana.
Zelenskyy's remarks came after Putin declined to attend face-to-face talks.
“I think Putin made a mistake by sending a low level delegation,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said as he arrived for the summit under a steady drizzle. “The ball is clearly in his part of the field now, in his court. He has to play ball. He has to be serious about wanting peace," Rutte added.
European Union foreign chief Kaja Kallas said Putin was “playing games, which shows that they are not serious about peace.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was clear that “President Zelenskyy was ready to meet but President Putin never showed up, and this shows his true belief. So we will increase the pressure.”
Von der Leyen said the EU is preparing a new package of sanctions. She said that the measures will target the shadow fleet of aging cargo vessels that Russia is using to bypass international sanctions and the Nord Stream pipeline consortium.
Russia’s financial sector would also be targeted, she said. EU envoys have been working on the new sanctions package for several weeks, and the bloc’s foreign ministers could enact them as soon as Tuesday.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are set to hold their first peace talks in 3 years
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni stressed that efforts to reach a deal on Ukraine must continue.
“I think ... that we must not throw in the towel. I think we must insist, we must insist for an unconditional ceasefire and a serious peace agreement that includes guarantees of security for Ukraine,” she said.