‘We know what you are doing’: UK and France call out Russia for ‘dragging feet’ over peace
France and Britain have accused Russia of dragging its feet over ceasefire talks in Ukraine.
It comes after the US announced it had agreed a 30-day ceasefire with both Ukraine and Russia separately.
However, Moscow continued its attacks in an apparent rejection of the peace efforts. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of continuing with attacks, too.
A Kremlin official said earlier this week that Moscow viewed efforts to end its three-year war in Ukraine as a “drawn-out process”.
‘We see you, Vladimir Putin’
“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot.
He added that while Putin should be accepting a ceasefire, “he continues to bombard Ukraine, its civilian population, its energy supplies”.
“We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing,” Lammy said.
‘Russia has been flip-flopping’
Britain and France are leading a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing”.
Barrot said that while Ukraine had accepted the terms of the ceasefire three weeks ago, Russia now “owes an answer to the United States”.
He went on: “Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes.
“It has to be ‘yes’. It has to be ‘no.’ It has to be a quick answer.”
Barrot warned Russia showed no intention of stopping its military campaign – citing Putin’s order on Monday to draft 160,000 now conscripts.
We covered that conscription drive here in detail.
Read analysis below from Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett on how Putin wants to build an army bigger than America’s…