Ukraine updates: European Union extends Russian sanctions

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of not taking attempts to secure a ceasefire in Ukraine seriously.

Starmer made the comments on Friday after Putin said he had “serious questions” over how the30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States would work.

“We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal,” Starmer said in a statement. 

He accused Putin of “trying to delay” the end of fighting, saying the Russian leader was demanding “pointless conditions” and “a painstaking study before a ceasefire can take place.”

“The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace,” Starmer added.

In a virtual meeting scheduled for Saturday, Starmer is expected to seek concrete commitments from around 25 world leaders about supporting Ukraine and increasing pressure on Putin to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for Russia to agree to the terms of a US ceasefire proposal that Kyiv has said it supports. In a post on the social media platform X, Macron wrote: “Russia must now accept the US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. The Russian aggression in Ukraine must end. The atrocities must stop. So must the delaying statements.”

Moreover, Macron said he had spoken with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer after what were said to have been productive talks between Ukraine and the US in Saudi Arabia that led Kyiv to agree to Washington’s plan.

On Friday, Zelenskyy also spoke of “productive and substantive” talks with Macron, and thanked the French president for his “advice and efforts in achieving a just and lasting peace.”

Macron, too, will attend in a weekend video conference of world leaders in support of Ukraine that UK PM Starmer has organized for Saturday.

Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7), a club of rich countries, on Friday unanimously warned Russia that it would face additional sanctions if it did not agree to the terms of a new ceasefire proposed by the United States.

At a meeting in rural Quebec, Canada, G7 foreign ministers drafted a communique backing Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” and condemning Russian “aggression.” The document “called for Russia to reciprocate by agreeing to a ceasefire on equal terms and implementing it fully.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he was “cautiously optimistic” at the prospects of peace, told reporters that Trump did not want further sanctions on Russia while noting that “the US has these options available” if needed.

Among the tools of persuasion discussed Friday were sanctions, caps on oil pricing, asset seizures and additional Ukraine support.

The foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US also emphasized the “need for robust and credible security arrangements to insure that Ukraine can deter and defend against any renewed acts of aggression.”

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will host a virtual meeting of world leaders on Saturday to further support for Ukraine amid fears US support will falter. The video conference comes two weeks after European and NATO leaders gathered in London for a prior crisis meeting put together by Starmer.

Ukraine’s supporters have been forced to elevate the scale and urgency of their efforts in the wake of a US ceasefire plan. 

US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine started the war, publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and justified Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s ruthless escalation of hostilities as normal.

Starmer has called on Moscow to accept the terms of the ceasefire, but so far Putin has not yet agreed and instead made additional Russian demands.

The German government has joined the chorus of Ukraine supporters accusing Putin of foot dragging as he seeks to cement military gains before sitting down to negotiate. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be among Saturday’s participants. 

Starmer’s stated aim is to establish a defense force from a coalition of willing nations to safeguard peace in the event that a ceasefire is signed. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was a reason to be “cautiously optimistic” that a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine could soon be achieved.

Rubio spoke after reaching an agreement with the G7 foreign ministers on a united stance towards Ukraine.

“I think we have a very strong statement from the G7,” Rubio said, also describing the meeting between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “very positive and productive.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the Kursk region to surrender.

This comes after US President Donald Trump urged Putin to “spare” the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.

Putin says Russia is “sympathetic” to President Trump’s request, adding that the Ukrainian forces will be guaranteed “life and dignified treatment” should they lay down their arms.

Hours later, Dmitry Medvedev, a former president now serving as deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, posted on social media that if Ukrainian troops “refuse to lay down their arms, they will all be methodically and mercilessly destroyed.”

Kyiv’s military, however, has claimed that Ukrainian troops are not under threat of encirclement and are falling back to more advantageous positions.

Russia has committed the crimes against humanity of enforced disappearances and torture in its war in Ukraine, a United Nations investigation has concluded.

The report will formally be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

According to the report, both crimes “were perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy.”

The report also says that the Russian authorities “committed additional violations and crimes” during the “prolonged detentions” of civilians detained in areas that came under Russian control.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the US could apply pressure on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine.

According to Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin will not end the war out of his own initiative, but “the strength of America is enough to make it happen.”

Zelenskyy also said he saw a good chance to end the war with Russia after Ukraine and the US proposed a 30-day ceasefire.

US President Donald Trump said he had a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

“We had very good and productive discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday, and there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

In his post, Trump also wrote that thousands of Ukrainian troops were completely surrounded by the Russian military, presumably referring to Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region where Russian troops are advancing.

“I have strongly requested to President Putin that their lives be spared,” Trump wrote.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, would convey to Trump the Russian leader’s thoughts on a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.

Russian troops recaptured 28 settlements in the western Kursk region last week and took control of the village of Novenke in Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Russia has sharply accelerated a push to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, where they took control of about 100 settlements in a surprise incursion into Russian territory last August.

EU member states agreed to extend sanctions against more than 2,400 individuals and entities on Friday over Russia’s war in Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

“Our determination to support Ukraine is crucial,” she wrote on X after the extension was agreed.

The announcement was delayed by Hungary, the EU’s most Russia-friendly member state, when it refused to sign the six-monthsanctions extension until four individuals were removed from the list, officials said.

Those Hungary wanted exempted from asset seizures and visa bans were businessmen Vladimir Rashevsky and Vyacheslav Kantor, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev and the sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov, according to diplomatic sources.

The EU was obliged to unanimously vote to renew sanctions by March 15, or these would automatically expire.

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, will relay the Russian leader’s thoughts on a ceasefire proposal to President Donald Trump, according to the Kremlin.

Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin held late night talks with Witkoff and that there was reason to be “cautiously optimistic.”

“When Mr Witkoff brings all the information to President Trump, we will determine the timing of a conversation [between Trump and Putin]. There are reasons to be cautiously optimistic,” Peskov told reporters.

Reuters news agency quoted Peskov as saying Putin was “in overall solidarity” with Trump on Ukraine, but that a lot of work was still needed.

A Finnish district court has found a Russian man guilty of committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, and sentenced him to life in prison.

The trial of Yan Petrovsky, also known as Voislav Torden, was a rare case of prosecutors outside Ukraine seeking justice for victims of alleged war crimes in a conflict that began long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Petrovsky, who has denied all charges, faced five counts related to his activities in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine a decade ago. 

He has been under European Union and US sanctions since 2022.

According to Russian media reports, US special envoy Steve Witkoff left Moscow after spending half a day in the Russian capital.

Russian state news agency Ria Novosti reported that the business jet Witkoff was said to be using took off from Moscow overnight and flew to Baku. It cited data from the Flightradar24 tracking service. 

Witkoff arrived in the Russian capital at midday on Thursday. There was still no information about a meeting between the US envoy and President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin had announced for Thursday evening.

According to the White House, Witkoff was sent to Moscow to present the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukrainian war. 

However, Putin’s response to the proposal was not unequivocal. The Russian leader said he supports ending fighting in Ukraine, but stressed that the terms of any truce agreement must eliminate “the root causes of the crisis.”

US President Donald Trump‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, visited in Moscow to discuss a 30-day ceasefire proposal agreed by the US and Ukraine at talks in Saudi Arabia earlier in the week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow agreed in principle with the proposals for a cessation of hostilities.

“But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the root causes of the crisis,” he added, signaling that he is not yet ready for an unconditional ceasefire.

Trump called Putin’s reaction “very promising,” but he added that “it wasn’t complete.”

“A lot of the details of a final agreement have actually been discussed,” Trump said, adding that should Russia not agree to the proposal, it would be a “very disappointing moment for the world.”

On the possibility of a meeting with Putin, Trump said he was considering it.