Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday, the 13th of March, ahead of talks between the US and Moscow, that Russia was trying to undermine peace talks and should be slammed with tough new sanctions, reports Politico.
Ukraine agreed to the Trump administration’s proposal for a 30-day pause in hostilities on condition that Moscow also commits to the plan. While Russian President Vladimir Putin did not reject the plan outright at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday, saying he supported “ending this conflict peacefully”, he offered conditions that he said should be considered before an agreement is reached.
It is all part of Putin’s “manipulative” plan to destroy or delay the ceasefire, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address
“Of course, Putin is afraid to tell President Trump directly that he wants to continue this war and continue killing Ukrainians,” the Ukrainian leader said.
“That’s why in Moscow they are surrounding the idea of a ceasefire with preconditions so that it either fails or is delayed as long as possible. Putin does this often – he does not say “no” openly, but delays things and makes reasonable solutions impossible.”
ZELENSKYY ADDED THAT IT WAS “TIME TO STEP UP THE PRESSURE” ON PUTIN WITH TOUGHER SANCTIONS, AS TRUMP HAD ALREADY THREATENED.
“Sanctions must be applied – ones that will work,” said Zelenskyy. “We will continue to work together with our American and European partners and with everyone in the world who wants peace – to force Russia to end this war.”
Zelenskyy said the ceasefire would give time to “prepare answers to all questions about long-term security and a real, credible peace, and to put on the table a plan to end the war”.
Speaking to reporters from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump called Putin’s ceasefire announcement “promising” but said it was “not perfect” and called on Russia to commit to the ceasefire.
“Now we’ll see if Russia does, and if not, it will be a very disappointing moment for the world,” he said.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has travelled to Moscow to meet Putin in a closed-door meeting to discuss the deal.
The Trump administration on Thursday allowed licences for energy deals with Russian financial institutions to expire, increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to want a peace deal. The expiry means that Russian banks are now blocked from accessing US payment systems.
The Kremlin has described its full-scale invasion, launched in 2022, as an attempt to rid Ukraine of the “Nazis”, who the Kremlin falsely claims are in power, and to protect ethnic Russians in the east of the country.
Most Western countries believe that Putin’s real aim is to keep Ukraine in his sphere of influence by destroying its democracy, annexing large parts of its territory and preventing it from joining NATO and the European Union.