Putin must "pay the price for his refusal to make peace" (PM Starmer)

Peace talks between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia did not take place in Turkey because Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want this. Meanwhile, a new meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin seems to be approaching.

The American administration expects that a meeting will take place very soon between the American president Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. This was stated by Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to the American President and Head of Counterterrorism. "Meetings are all about timing. When the moment is right, the president will sit down with Putin, but my expectation is: very soon," he said at an international security conference organised by the newspaper Politico.

Meanwhile, the allies of Ukraine also responded to Putin's no-show. For instance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Russian President Vladimir Putin "must pay the price for his refusal to make peace" with Ukraine. "Putin's tactics of delay and prolongation, while continuing to kill and cause bloodshed in Ukraine, are unacceptable," said Starmer. "There must be a full and unconditional ceasefire. If Russia does not want to come to the negotiating table, then Putin will have to pay the price for that," emphasised Keir Starmer ahead of a summit of the European Political Community (EPC) on Friday in Albania. Europe is indeed threatening even tougher sanctions against the Russian energy sector.

(SR - Source: Euronews/Reuters/Politico - Illustration: ©Unsplash)