Leaders from four major European countries threatened to ratchet up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin if he does not accept an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine that they offered on Saturday in a strong show of unity with Kyiv.The leaders of France Germany and Poland said their proposal for a ceasefire to start on Monday was supported by U.S. President Donald Trump , whom they had briefed over the phone earlier in the day.Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Saturday told CNN that Moscow will need to consider the proposal. Putin's interlocutors included To Lam, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the leaders of Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and the Palestinian Authority.Europe threatens more sanctions if Russia ignores ceasefire offer Progress on ending the three-year war has seemed elusive in the months since Trump returned to the White House, and his previous claims of imminent breakthroughs have failed to come to fruition. The European leaders threatened to ratchet up sanctions, including on Russia's energy and banking sectors, if Putin did not comply.The priority was to make it too costly for Russia to keep fighting in Ukraine, said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.When asked how the monitoring mechanism would work, Sybiha told The Associated Press the details were still being discussed.Addressing skepticism over whether fresh sanctions against Moscow, which has so far managed to keep fighting in the war, Merz said "almost all member states of the European Union and a large coalition of the willing around the world are determined to enforce these sanctions even if our initiative of the weekend should fail.
Author: AP
Published at: 2025-05-10 21:49:35
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