European leaders have reacted sceptically to the limited ceasefire in Ukraine agreed by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, saying it has made it abundantly clear that the Russian president is not serious about seeking a peaceful end to the three-year-old conflict.
During a call with the US president, Putin agreed to a partial ceasefire that would stop his forces targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but declined to commit to the 30-day full ceasefire plan pitched by Trump last week and agreed to by Ukraine.
Further doubts about the deal arose after Russia launched a wave of attacks on targets across Ukraine hours after Trump and Putin spoke. Russia also reported a series of attacks by Ukrainian drones.
“Attacks on civilian infrastructure in the first night after this supposedly pivotal and great phone call have not abated,” Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said in an interview with the German broadcaster ZDF. “Putin is playing a game here and I’m sure that the American president won’t be able to sit and watch for much longer.”
Pistorius said Putin’s commitment to stop attacks on energy targets was “basically nothing” because such infrastructure in Ukraine was already the “best protected”.
The minister also described as “unacceptable” the Kremlin’s insistence that a key condition for peace would be a total halt of western military and intelligence support to Ukraine’s embattled military.
“This is very transparent,” Pistorius said, adding that Putin aimed to prevent Kyiv’s backers from “further supporting Ukraine and enabling it to really defend itself if there is another attack, during or after a ceasefire”.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said their countries would continue sending military aid to Ukraine. “Ukraine can count on us,” Scholz said.
The Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, also dismissed Russian demands that help for Kyiv be halted. “Ukraine has an undeniable right to defend itself on its own and supported by its partners,” he said on Wednesday. “This right cannot be restricted in any way, not now, and not in the future.”
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, downplayed the US-Russian deal. She said: “It is clear that Russia does not really want to make any kind of concessions.” She added that Kremlin demands to stop arming Kyiv could not be accepted.
Spain’s foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, was equally cautious about the prospects for peace. In an interview with Radio Nacional de España on Wednesday morning, he described the conflict as “one man’s war”, adding that there was “no real will from Putin to stop this war”.
He asaid: “It’s positive that there’s talk of a ceasefire and talk of peace with Russia, but we’re still very far from the peace that Spain and the European people want.”
Others, however, were more optimistic. On Wednesday, China applauded the deal between Putin and Trump.
“The Chinese side has advocated resolving the crisis through dialogue and negotiation from the very beginning,” its foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. “We welcome all efforts toward a ceasefire and consider it a necessary step toward achieving peace.”
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report
