Lammy accuses Putin of dragging feet, US questions Russia’s intent
British FM David Lammy on Friday said Putin “continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet”. He added, “He could accept a ceasefire now, he continues to bombard Ukraine, its population, its energy supplies. We see you, Putin”.
After other European allies also accused Moscow of stalling over the Trump administration’s call for a ceasefire, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio replied the United States would know in a matter of weeks if Russia is serious about peace with Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump, who has promised to bring a quick end to the three-year-old war, has for weeks said he believes Russia’s Vladimir Putin is committed to peace.
Sources say the White House has grown wary of Putin’s intentions in recent days, although Trump continues to signal publicly his belief that Putin wants to end the war.
“We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are,” Rubio said at the end of a two-day NATO meeting.
“If this is dragging things out, President Trump’s not going to fall into the trap of endless negotiations about negotiations,” Rubio said.
Moscow rejected a US proposal in March for a full 30-day ceasefire after Ukraine said it would agree.
The Kremlin said Putin and Trump had no plans to talk after a visit to Washington by Putin’s investment envoy as wider negotiations over a truce in Ukraine appeared stalled.
NBC News reported on Thursday that Trump’s inner circle is advising him not to speak to Putin again until the Russian leader commits to a full ceasefire in Ukraine.
Europe to ramp up defence
European NATO allies and Canada on Friday said they are willing to ramp up defence spending but are cool on US demands for the size of their military budgets. US allies have spent billions of dollars more on defence since Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, but almost a third of them still do not meet NATO’s target of at least 2% of their GDP.
The US has demanded allies to spend at least 5% of their GDP. Rubio also said, the US would no longer bear the burden of providing the majority of global humanitarian aid. He hinted at India and China to step up.
Strikes on energy infra continue
Russia’s Defence Ministry on Friday accused Ukraine of attacking Russian energy facilities six times in the past 24 hours despite a US-brokered moratorium on striking each other’s energy infrastructure, Russian news agencies reported. Moscow launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring 35 in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, regional officials said.
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