EUROPEAN leaders have intensified calls for Russia to accept an unconditional ceasefire, warning that the country will face increased sanctions if it refuses.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined his Ukrainian, French, German and Polish counterparts in Kyiv on Saturday in further talks with the so-called "coalition of the willing", where they also spoke on the phone with US president Donald Trump.
Speaking from the Ukrainian capital, Starmer said that European allies, “together with the US”, are “calling [Vladimir] Putin out” and that allies will “ramp up sanctions” if the Russian president “turns his back on peace” as he and allies backed plans for a 30-day ceasefire to begin on Monday.
Starmer said that if the Russian president is “serious” about peace then “he has a chance to show it now by extending the current pause", VE Day, pause "into a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire".
He added: “No more ifs and buts, no more conditions and delays.
“Ukraine has shown the willingness to engage again and again, but again and again, Putin has refused.
“So we are clear, all five leaders here – all the leaders of the meeting we just had with the coalition of the willing – an unconditional ceasefire, rejecting Putin’s conditions, and clear that if he turns his back on peace, we will respond.
“Working with President Trump, with all our partners, we will ramp up sanctions and increase our military aid for Ukraine’s defence to pressure Russia back to the table.”
The Prime Minister has been in the capital alongside French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk for further talks on the so-called “coalition of the willing” with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
They spoke with the US president on the phone, and are understood to have updated him on coalition of the willing plans, in a call that lasted around 20 minutes and was described by a UK source as “warm”.
