By Sabine Siebold
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European foreign ministers at a NATO meeting blamed Russia on Friday for thwarting a U.S. push for peace in the Ukraine war, in a clear bid to persuade the Trump administration to take a harder line towards Moscow.
U.S. 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. But the White House has grown wary of Putin’s intentions in recent days, sources have told Reuters.
Moscow rejected a U.S. proposal in March for a full 30-day ceasefire after Ukraine said it would agree. The warring sides then agreed to a limited pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure, which both accuse the other of violating.
Putin “continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Friday ahead of the second day of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
“He could accept a ceasefire now, he continues to bombard Ukraine, its civilian population, its energy supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin, we know what you are doing,” Lammy said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Putin’s talk of negotiations was “nothing but empty promises” and accused the Russian leader of “playing for time by raising ever new demands”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Moscow “owes an answer to the United States, that have worked very hard to come up with a mediation effort and a ceasefire proposal.”
“It has to be yes. It has to be no. It has to be a quick answer,” he said.
Canada’s Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said a deadline should be set for Russia to respond to the ceasefire offer.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Ingrid Melander, Charlotte Van Campenhout; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Peter Graff)
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