VLADIMIR Putin will “sooner or later” have to come to the negotiating table, Sir Keir Starmer said as he began further talks on a “coalition of the willing” on Saturday.
Addressing around 25 world leaders from the Cabinet room in 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister said President Volodymyr Zelensky – who joined Saturday’s call – had “shown once again that Ukraine is the party of peace” by agreeing to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
Accusing Putin of trying to “delay” progress on a ceasefire, he said: “If Putin is serious about peace, it’s very simple. He has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire.
“The world is watching. My feeling is that sooner or later he is going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussions.”
Saturday’s virtual meeting is aimed at continuing plans for a peacekeeping force of Western troops to be deployed in the event of a ceasefire, although Russia has indicated it would not accept Nato or European soldiers in Ukraine.
Starmer told his counterparts they could not “sit back and simply wait” for a ceasefire, adding: “We have to keep pushing ahead, pushing forward and preparing for peace, and a peace that will be secure and that will last.”
Following the Prime Minister’s address, the meeting heard from French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Zelensky and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.
The discussions follow a week in which American officials took a US-Ukraine proposal for a 30-day ceasefire to Moscow following talks in Saudi Arabia.
But, so far, the Kremlin has resisted calls for an unconditional ceasefire.
While Putin has described the principle of a ceasefire as “correct”, he has insisted it must come with a promise from Ukraine to abandon attempts to join Nato and give up control of regions seized by Russia.
It comes after Mikhail Kasyanov, Putin’s first prime minister and now an opponent of the Russian president, said Moscow was only interested in a conditional ceasefire.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “He rejected this proposal for an unconditional ceasefire, he wants conditional, he wants a ceasefire on his terms.”
Asked whether Putin would accept peacekeepers, Kasyanov said: “I don’t believe this, but he could accept – if his terms and conditions are accepted, for instance the stop of military supplies (from the West) – he could agree to just Indians and Brazilians and other friendly countries, troops from those countries but not from Nato nations or from Europe at all.”
He added that Western sanctions were having an effect on Russia’s economy, and would get worse by the end of the year, saying: “By the end of the year, he will be a different Putin and would be more willing to negotiate.”
