Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia was “ready” for war if Europe seeks one, accusing Europe of trying to sabotage a deal on the Ukraine conflict before he met with US envoys.
“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Mr Putin said ahead of talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Mr Putin said that European powers were making demands on a possible peace settlement for Ukraine that Russia considers absolutely unacceptable.
He said Russia would intensify strikes on Ukrainian facilities and vessels, and would take measures against tankers of countries that help Ukraine.
Mr Trump has said he wants to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II but his efforts so far, including a summit with Mr Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, have not yet brought peace.
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged last week, worrying Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Russia’s main demands on NATO, its control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine’s army.
Steve Witkoff is due to meet the Russian president in Moscow
European powers then gave their counter-proposal for peace and at talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Mr Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week “could be the basis for future agreements”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Witkoff’s meeting with Mr Putin would be in the second half of the day, but he would not be drawn on Russia’s “red lines”, saying megaphone diplomacy was not helpful.
A White House official said Mr Witkoff would be joined by Mr Kushner for his trip to Russia. A Bombardier Global 7500 jet previously used by Mr Witkoff entered Russian airspace, and the Russian news agency Interfax later said it had arrived in Moscow. The plane had taken off from Miami.
Mr Putin has said he is ready to talk peace but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, then Russia’s forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.
Russia’s invasion in February 2022 involved tens of thousands of troops. Conflict has erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces.
Russian forces control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 sq.km, up one percentage point from two years ago, and have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps, although Ukraine says the gains have come with heavy Russian losses.
Mr Putin, in video footage released on the eve of Mr Witkoff’s visit, hailed what his commanders told him was the Russian capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign.
Ukrainian forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk, the Ukrainian military said.
US officials say more than 1.2 million men have been killed or wounded in the war. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses their losses. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities and forced many people from their homes.
Since the US draft proposals emerged late last month, European powers have been trying to bolster Ukraine against what they see as a punitive pro-Russian peace that could open up Russia to US investment in oil, gas and rare earths and return Moscow to the G8.
Key Russian demands include a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian army, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, recognition of Russian control of the regions of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protection for Russian speakers and Russian Orthodox believers in Ukraine.
Ukraine says those would amount to capitulation, and leave it prone to eventual conquest by Russia, though the United States has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Ukraine.
Mr Witkoff, Mr Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, for talks on Sunday at Mr Witkoff’s Shell Bay club near Miami.
“We share the view that the war must be brought to a fair end,” Ukraine’s President Zelensky said on X after talks in Paris. He said yesterday that Russia should not be rewarded for a war it started.
Ukraine and European powers depict the war as an imperial-style land grab by Russia, and have repeatedly warned that if Russia wins the war then it will one day attack NATO members.