Pressure is mounting on Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine, but it has so far rejected such calls as “ultimatums” to which it will not bow.
Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s comments on Sunday, May 11th, that he is willing to accept his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin’s proposal to meet on Thursday in Istanbul, both Turkish and European leaders urged the sides to agree to a ceasefire.
“Right now there is an issue that needs to be reconciled: the Ukrainians want a ceasefire first, then talks, and the Russians want talks first then a ceasefire, so the situation has come to a deadlock,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday, urging the sides to come together “as soon as possible” to start a ceasefire agreement.
The two sides had held direct talks in Istanbul in the first weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but failed to agree on how to halt the fighting, which has been raging ever since.
Western European leaders, who had not even talked about a potential peace deal before the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, and were only concerned with rearming Ukraine, also called for a ceasefire on Monday.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy, hosting ministers from the EU on Monday, said Putin needs to “get serious about peace in Europe, to get serious about a ceasefire and to get serious about talks.”
The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also called for a ceasefire and accused Russia of “playing games.”
The Kremlin said on Monday it was focused on “serious” ways to achieve long-term peace with Ukraine, and that “ultimatums” to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine were “unacceptable.”
