Britain and France accuse Russia's Putin of delaying Ukraine ceasefire
efforts
[April 04, 2025]
By LORNE COOK and ILLIA NOVIKOV
BRUSSELS (AP) — Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President
Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks aimed at halting
his country's invasion of Ukraine and demanded a swift response from
Moscow after weeks of U.S. efforts to secure a truce.
A Russian drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine's
second-largest city, killed five civilians and dramatized the diplomatic
insistence on a ceasefire. Emergency crews carried black body bags from
a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.
Some of the 32 injured, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the
street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of
their homes.
“Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war,”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in
Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. “We must get Russia serious
about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace.”
Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate
30-day halt in the fighting. A Kremlin official said Monday that Moscow
views efforts to end its more than three-year war with Ukraine as “a
drawn-out process.”
“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag
his feet,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO
headquarters, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot
in a symbolic show of unity.
A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump
administration officials said Friday that further meetings will be
needed to resolve outstanding issues.
Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that “the dialogue will take some
time, but it’s proceeding positively and constructively.”
He criticized what he called a “well-coordinated media campaign and
attempts by various politicians to spoil Russia-U.S. relations, distort
what Russia says, and cast Russia and its leaders in a negative way.”
Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was sanctioned by
the Biden administration after the invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. had to
temporarily lift the restrictions to allow him to travel to Washington
this week.
Civilian areas in three other Ukrainian regions were also hit in Russian
attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian air force said Russia
fired 78 strike and decoy drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air
defenses destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.
Plans for ground offensive
Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the
coming weeks to maximize pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the
Kremlin’s negotiating position in the ceasefire talks, according to
Ukrainian government and Western military analysts.
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Rescuers carry the body of a killed resident following Russia's
drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP
Photo/Yevhen Titov)
Russia is preparing a major, multi-pronged ground offensive along
the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line as muddy fields dry out
and allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to roll
into key positions across the countryside.
Britain and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known
as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force that might
police any future peace agreement in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian
official said earlier this week that between 10 and 12 countries
have said they are ready to join the coalition.
Lammy said that while Putin should be accepting a ceasefire, “he
continues to bombard Ukraine. It’s civilian population. It’s energy
supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing.”
‘Russia has been flip-flopping’
Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks
ago, and that Russia now "owes an answer to the United States.” U.S.
President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he promised last year
to bring the war to a swift conclusion.
“Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy
infrastructure, continuing its war crimes,” Barrot said. “It has to
be ‘yes.’ It has to be ‘no.’ It has to be a quick answer.”
He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military
campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to
draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military
service.
The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up
Ukraine’s armed forces – the country’s best security guarantee since
the U.S. took any prospect of NATO membership off the table.
Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense
ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next
Thursday.
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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
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