Russia ready for war if Europe wants one, Putin says ahead of meeting with U.S. officials on Ukraine

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The initial U.S.-backed 28-point peace plan, based largely on Russian talking points, contained some interesting references to Europe.

While the proposals shot down the idea of Ukraine joining NATO, it left the door open to Ukraine joining the European Union. Putin has always been extremely dismissive of the EU; he's characterized the 27-country bloc as being hostile to Russia and behaving like a vassal entity of the United States.

Putin may not object to potential Ukrainian EU membership, either because he thinks it's unlikely to happen or he considers the EU to be irrelevant to great power relations. He has frequently spoken about a multipolar world dominated by Russia, China, the United States and possibly India.

Putin's disdain for European leaders again punched through in today's address, as he blamed them for blocking a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

Many — but not all — European leaders fear a bad peace deal that weakens Ukrainian sovereignty will increase the likelihood of further Russian aggression.

The meeting between the U.S. Delegation and Russia did not appear to have begun an hour and a half after it was due to start, as Putin continued to speak at the forum in Moscow around 10:30 a.m. ET.

At the forum, Putin said that Russia did not want a war with European powers — but that if Europe did want a war, then Russia was ready right now to fight.

Putin said that European powers were making demands on a possible peace settlement for Ukraine that Moscow considers "absolutely unacceptable," Reuters reports.

He also called out countries he said were helping Ukraine, characterizing attacks on tankers near Turkey as piracy.

A Russian-flagged tanker loaded with sunflower oil reported a drone attack off the Turkish coast on Tuesday, but its 13 crew members were unharmed, Turkey's maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency said. Ukraine said it had nothing to do with the incident.

Putin also said Russia would intensify strikes on Ukrainian facilities and vessels.

Ukraine has had to severely cut back on its energy usage, with entire cities going dark to save on electricity.

Before meeting with the U.S. Negotiators, Putin is speaking at an investment forum in Moscow. In his speech, he's amplifying some of his key narratives about the war he launched against Ukraine.

He positioned Russia as being threatened by Europe, saying "they are on the side of war." He's already indicating the proposals that the U.S. Team is set to present to him are "unacceptable" — although, again, he's suggesting Europe leaders are blocking U.S. Efforts to end the war.

This likely reflects Putin's desire to keep Trump onside even as he dismisses the compromises that have been put forward to halt the fighting.

On the eve of his meetings with the U.S. Team, Putin said he is ordering his military to create a buffer zone inside northern Ukraine, in the areas of Sumy and Chernihiv.

His statement could have several goals, including trying to force Ukraine's already stretched military to spread out farther to guard against new attacks and incursions.

The optics of this key day of diplomacy are notable and not in a good way for Ukraine's president.

While his country's fate is being deliberated — and Ukraine territory potentially dissected — by top U.S. And Russian negotiators in Moscow, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is on the other side of Europe meeting Ireland's prime minister.

European leaders have adopted the motto of "nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine," but Donald Trump has different ideas. His envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been to Moscow many times over the months of attempted peacemaking — but he has never visited Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, appears to believe he has momentum both on the battlefield and on the diplomatic front. Coming out of today's Kremlin meetings, observers will be looking for any sign that he's prepared to step back from any of his key demands — namely, that Ukraine turn over hundreds of square kilometres of land that Russia has not conquered, and that Zelenskyy accept Russian-imposed limits on the size of Ukraine's army and a ban on foreign troops on Ukrainian soil.

Speaking in Dublin, Zelenskyy said he expects to hear from the U.S. Delegation as soon as they finish the meeting in Moscow.

He said he is ready to meet Trump again, but that whether that happens depends on how the talks in Moscow go.

The Ukrainian president said he believes the current efforts are the best chances for a diplomatic end to the fighting.

But he added that Russian frozen assets should have been used to fund Ukraine long ago. EU foreign policy head Kaja Kallas recently said a team of EU countries was working to make that happen.

Zelenskyy said he hopes the U.S. Remains transparent about its negotiations with Russia, saying there should be no "game" behind Ukraine's back.

He noted there were no easy decisions to be made in the talks, according to Reuters.

How Steve Witkoff became Trump’s best friend

Witkoff is a somewhat unconventional figure in foreign diplomacy. He was a real estate developer before joining the Trump administration and a good friend of Trump himself.

The pair have known each other since Witkoff was a lawyer in New York City in the 1990s. After that, he began developing properties and became — by some accounts — "best friends" with the U.S. President, playing golf and rubbing shoulders on real estate deals.

In 2021, ProPublica reported Witkoff had given more than $2 million US to Trump and Republican causes, and served as an informal adviser on tax cuts and opioids.

The latter issue became personal for Witkoff after his 22-year-old son, Andrew, suffered a drug toxicity death at a sober living house in 2011.

Witkoff has received credit from many Middle East analysts for his efforts to bring about an end to fighting between Israel and Hamas, but received severe criticism for his diplomatic efforts on the Russia-Ukraine file.

Pokrovsk was once an important logistics hub for the Ukrainian army, Reuters reports. It sits on a key road used to supply other front-line outposts. But the war has pulverized apartment buildings and left cratered roads; most people have now fled.

Capturing Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka to its northeast would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk: Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

It would also leave Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region to the west more vulnerable to Russian advances.

Reuters reports that Moscow wants to convince the West that its capture of the remainder of the Donetsk region is inevitable and that it would be better for Kyiv to voluntarily hand it over as part of a peace deal.

Zelenskyy is in Dublin, making an appearance with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

A military band welcomed him and the two leaders just shook hands before their meeting. Zelenskyy was also invited to inspect the Irish ceremonial guard of honour.

Earlier today, Zelenskyy wrote on X that, "Ukraine approaches all diplomatic efforts with utmost seriousness," adding that the country wants "real peace" and security guarantees.

"This is exactly the level of commitment that must be compelled from the Russian side."

Zelenskyy met with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday, when he noted that the question of territory remains the most difficult issue in negotiations.

NATO Chief Mark Rutte said again this morning that there is no consensus for Ukraine to join the military alliance.

"The practical situation is, as you know, that there is consensus required by all allies for Ukraine to join NATO. And right now, as you know, there is no consensus on Ukraine joining NATO," Rutte told reporters at the alliance's foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

Rutte said Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha would be joining a "working lunch" at the meeting tomorrow and that Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, would be there as well.

"We all recognize that our security is deeply linked and we are all working to bring the war against Ukraine to an end with a just and lasting peace," Rutte said, noting he believes the U.S. Efforts toward ending the war would "eventually restore peace in Europe."

Rutte also thanked "European and Canadian allies" for billions of dollars' worth of equipment to Ukraine and that he expected the announcement of "new contributions in the coming days."

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