Nato and the UK have hit back at Vladimir Putin’s threat that Russia is “ready for war” with Europe.
British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said Putin’s comments were “Kremlin claptrap”, while Nato secretary general Mark Rutte insisted the alliance was “willing to do what it takes to protect our 1 billion people and secure our territory”.
The ramping up of rhetoric comes as hopes for a US-brokered peace deal in Ukraine fade. On Wednesday, a planned meeting between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and a US delegation was cancelled, hours after President Donald Trump’s team appeared to leave Moscow empty-handed.
Mr Rutte insisted Mr Trump “is the only person in the whole world able to break the deadlock” over the Ukraine war.
“Nato is a defensive alliance,” Mr Rutte said, ahead of a summit of Nato leaders in Brussels. “But make no mistake, we are ready and willing to do what it takes to protect our one billion people and secure our territory. Putin believes he can outlast us, but we are not going anywhere.”
Progress on peace talks appears to have stalled following a five-hour meeting on Tuesday between Russian officials, including Kirill Dmitriev, President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The Kremlin has denied it had outright rejected a deal, claiming that disagreement was part of a “normal working process and a search for compromise”.
Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner had been due to fly to Brussels after Moscow to speak with the Ukrainian delegation, but instead returned to Washington the same day.
Mr Rutte hinted at the deadlock in his address on Wednesday, saying: “There is only one person in the whole world who is able to break the deadlock. That is the American president, Donald J Trump.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Mr Witkoff had been in touch with the Ukrainian delegation after his talks in Moscow.
“There was contact between the head of the Ukrainian delegation and Mr Witkoff,” Mr Sybiha told reporters. “Representatives of the American delegation reported that, in their opinion, the talks in Moscow had a positive outcome and they invited the Ukrainian delegation to continue our talks in America in the near future.”
It is not yet clear what that “positive outcome” is, coming after accusations that Mr Trump’s original 28-point plan for peace was a “Russian wishlist”.
On Wednesday, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper called on Putin to “end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace”, ad European leaders accusing him of feigning interest in talks.
However, Mr Trump said his advisers believed Vladimir Putin wants to end war in Ukraine. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: “Their impression was very strongly that he’d like to make a deal.”
