London: the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, said that the “ball was in the court of Russia” and that President Vladimir Putin “sooner or later” will have to “come to the table”, after a virtual summit on Saturday to obtain support for a coalition willing to protect any cessation of eventual fire in Ukraine.
The British prime minister told about 26 leader partners when they joined the group so -called group organized by Downing Street who should focus on how to strengthen Ukraine, protect any high fire and maintain pressure on Moscow.
While Ukraine had shown that it was the “Peace Party” by accepting a high unconditional fire of 30 days, “Putin is the one who tries to delay,” he said.
“If Putin takes peace seriously, I think it is very simple, he has to stop his barbaric attacks against Ukraine and accept a high fire, and the world is looking,” he added.
The military bosses will now meet again Thursday in the United Kingdom as the coalition goes to “the operational phase,” Starmer said after the conversations.
“The group that met this morning is a larger group that two weeks ago, there is a stronger collective resolution and new commitments on the table were put this morning,” he added.
The president of the EU European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a message about X that Russia has to demonstrate that “he is willing to support a high fire that leads to a fair and lasting peace.”
And the Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, also said in X that “it is now important to continue exerting pressure on Russia to reach the negotiating table.”
The fighting during the night continued in the relentless three -year war, with Russia saying that he had taken two more villages in his border region of Kursk, where he has launched an offensive to snatch the seized territory.
Fighting in the Kursk region
As the movements have accumulated rhythm for a high fire, Moscow has pressed this week to resume a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in western Kursk.
But the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined the conversations, denied on Saturday any “circulation” of his troops in the Kursk region.
“Our troops continue to retain the Russian and North Korean groups in the Kursk region,” he said on social networks.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said the troops took control over the towns of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina, north and west of the city of Sudzha, the main city that Moscow claimed this week.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said that his Air Force had demolished 130 Russians, manufactured with Iranians in 14 regions of the country during the night.
Putin has asked Ukrainian troops in Kursk to “give up”, while his American counterpart Donald Trump urged Kremlin to forgive their lives.
“The complete contempt of the Kremlin for the proposal of Alto El Fuego of President Trump only serves to show that Putin is not serious about peace,” Starmer said Friday night before the call.
The Starmer and the French president Emmanuel Macron have led the efforts to gather a call “coalition of the provisions” since Trump opened direct negotiations with Moscow last month.
They say that the group is necessary, together with the support of the United States, to provide Ukraine security guarantees by deter Putin to violate any high fire.
Starmer and Macron have said that they are willing to put British and French troops on the field in Ukraine, but it is not clear if other countries are interested in doing the same.
‘Stop violence’
Macron also asked Russia on Friday night to accept the proposal of Alto El Fuego, and stop making statements aimed at “delaying the process.”
The French president also demanded that Moscow stop his “acts of violence” in Ukraine.
Germany also criticized on Friday Putin’s response to Alto the fire proposed by the United States in Ukraine as “in the best case a delayed tactic.”
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, said Friday that he was “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a truce, but acknowledged that there was “a lot of work that remained to be done.”
Starmer has said that he appreciates any supply of support for the coalition, which increases the possibility that some countries can contribute to logistics or surveillance.
But the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, reiterated after the call, to which he joined, that “Italy’s participation in a possible military force in the field is not planned.”
The British partners of the Commonwealth Canada, Australia and New Zealand have participated in the first conversations and have marked the summit.
The boss of NATO, Mark Rutte, and the heads of the European Union von der Leyen and Antonio Costa also participated, along with the leaders of Germany, Spain, Portugal, Latvia, Romania, Turkey and the Czech Republic, among others.
