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.
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.
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.”
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.