Russia faces sanctions if truce ignored, Germany says
Tom Balmforth |
European countries will start preparing new sanctions on Russia within hours unless the Kremlin starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, Germany’s government say.
Ukraine’s military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukraine on Monday as well as an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite the ceasefire proposal by Europe and Kyiv.
“The clock is ticking,” a German government spokesperson said at a news conference in Berlin.
“We still have 12 hours until the end of the day, and if the ceasefire is not in place by then, the European side will (set in motion) preparations for sanctions,” the spokesperson said.
The leaders of four major European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.
In a fresh twist in the stop-start peace talks process, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would travel in person to Istanbul where, he said, he would be waiting to meet Putin.
The Kremlin has not responded to that latest proposal. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 – over two years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – and make no secret of their contempt for each other.
The Ukrainian air force said Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting from 11pm, an hour before the proposed ceasefire was due to kick in.
Attacks of this kind unfold over hours as drones fly much slower than missiles.
“As of 0830, it was confirmed that 55 Shahed attack (drones)… were shot down in the east, north, south and centre of the country,” it said, adding that an additional 30 had been lost on radars and caused no damage.
A woman was injured by a strike drone in the small port city of Bilhorod-Dnistrovsk in the Black Sea region of Odesa overnight, the regional governor said.
Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said, while the Ukrainian state railway company said a Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in the east.
The train driver suffered a shrapnel wound in his leg after the train was struck by a drone, it said.
Russian troops carried out dozens of assaults on the eastern front line in Ukraine on Monday after the start of the proposed truce, a Ukrainian military spokesman said.
The intensity of the fighting was at the same level it would be if there were no ceasefire, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the military on Ukraine’s eastern front.
Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show US President Donald Trump that they are working towards his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.
Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the US military backing it received from Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.
Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world’s biggest economy.
Europe, meanwhile, is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite his imposition of tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine’s cause, which they see as central to the continent’s security.
A group of European Union foreign ministers and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas are holding talks in London on Monday.
Reuters
