Putin says Russia is ready for war if Europe wants it

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is ready to fight a war with Europe if it is provoked, as he accused leaders of sabotaging US-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

“We are not planning to go to war with Europe, but if Europe wants to and starts, we are ready right now,” he said on Tuesday. “They are on the side of war.”

He said Europe had made demands on a possible peace settlement for Ukraine, which he said Russia found “absolutely unacceptable”.

Putin suggested European powers were hindering President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal in order to accuse Russia of not wanting peace.

The Russian leader was speaking at a plenary session of the VTB Russia Calling Investment forum in Moscow, ahead of talks with Mr Trump’s special envoy and son-in-law – Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Last month, Russia and the US agreed to a 28-point plan - widely condemned by European governments - that would force Ukraine to give up land, cut its army and cease its NATO ambitions. On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelensky revealed a reworked 20-point plan, following talks with US officials over the weekend.

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Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Mr Trump's peace efforts by making proposals that leaders knew were unacceptable to Russia.

He said: “We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia."

As was widely expected, the talks between Mr Trump’s envoy and Putin on Tuesday night, despite lasting nearly five hours, failed to produce a significant breakthrough.

Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said discussions were “productive” in a post on X. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov also said they had been constructive.

But the latter added that the two sides are no closer to resolving the crisis in Ukraine, and said there was much work to be done. He noted that the sides failed to reach a compromise on one of the most difficult issues - territorial disputes.

Few details on the talks have been made public, with both sides agreeing not to disclose the substance of the talks.

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Despite European criticism of the 28-point plan, Mr Zelensky went to work on it, before revealing the 20-point version.

“The work was based on the Geneva document, and that document has been refined,” Mr Zelensky wrote on X (Twitter), as he called for more European involvement, and said there was more that needed to be worked out.

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“Our diplomats are actively working with all partners to ensure that European countries and other participants in the Coalition of the Willing are meaningfully involved in developing decisions.”

The news came as fighting intensified around the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, with Russia claiming its capture and releasing pictures of its forces waving Russian flags in the town. Ukraine maintains that fighting remains ongoing.

A senior Nato official told European Pravda that Russian forces controlled 95 per cent of the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which has been the focal point of fierce fighting on the eastern front for more than a year.

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"Ukrainian forces are still conducting defensive actions inside the city, but as supply routes have been almost completely cut, Ukrainian troops are dependent on resupply by drones, which is becoming increasingly difficult,” the official said.

"Russians control over 95% of the city… There are only isolated pockets where Ukrainian forces continue to resist."

In the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad, Ukrainian forces have been “virtually encircled” and are relying on drones for supplies, the official said.

"Myrnohrad is now virtually fully encircled.

"There is a narrow corridor through which the Ukrainians can withdraw certain forces, but it is a very narrow corridor, itself under hostile fire control. Overall, this is an encirclement, though not yet a complete encirclement.”