MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Tuesday that Moscow is “ready” for war if Europe chooses confrontation, accusing European leaders of deliberately undermining efforts to secure a US-brokered deal to end the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine.
His remarks came as US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner held high-stakes talks in Moscow following several days of intense diplomacy aimed at reviving a negotiated settlement.
“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” Putin told reporters. He accused European governments of having “no peaceful agenda,” claiming they were siding with war advocates and obstructing Washington’s attempts to move the peace process forward.
Putin argued that European revisions to Trump’s latest peace proposal were intended to “completely block the entire peace process” by introducing demands “absolutely unacceptable for Russia.”
The United States has circulated a 28-point draft plan to end the war—later amended after criticism from Kyiv and European capitals, who said the original version conceded too much to Moscow’s maximalist demands. While Trump has aggressively pushed the plan, European governments fear it risks forcing Kyiv into territorial concessions under pressure.
European leaders, wary of further Russian aggression, have repeatedly insisted that no imposed or “unfair” peace should be forced upon Ukraine.
Trump’s envoys are now seeking to finalise a version of the agreement that can win approval from both Moscow and Kyiv.
