Russia Drags Its Heels Over Ukraine Ceasefire Proposal While Still Firing Out Abuse At Europe

Russia is yet to formally respond to America’s plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but Vladimir Putin’s top team seems to be playing for time by insulting Europe.

After hours of negotiations in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine agreed to Washington’s proposal to pause its conflict with Russia after three years of war.

The US secretary of state Marco Rubio made it clear last night that the “ball is in Russia’s court” – even though the conflict started with Putin’s 2022 invasion, and would end if Moscow withdrew its troops.

Rubio – representing a White House which is particularly sympathetic to Moscow’s cause – added on Wednesday: “If [the Kremlin] say no, then obviously we’ll have to examine everything and sort of figure out where we stand in the world and what their true intentions are.”

Although they have insisted they want peace too, Moscow has been particularly coy about responding.

Speaking to Russian state news agency TASS about when Russia may reply to the ceasefire plan, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “You tend to anticipate things a bit prematurely, and we prefer not to do that.

“Yesterday, both secretary of state Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz mentioned that they would provide us with detailed information about the essence of the conversation that took place in Jeddah through various channels.

“We need to receive this information first.”

The basic information around the proposal has been widely reported around the world.

And Putin has already claimed that a resolution should not just be a temporary “respite” but make way for permanent peace. He has also refused to make any concessions and wants Ukraine to cede territory in any potential deal.

In the meantime, Russia has launched new attacks on Ukraine’s European allies.

Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen the “fuhrer” and claimed the continent has fallen apart.

Lavrov said: “They declared that Nato is the future of Ukraine. The European Union also.

“When they started saying these things, the European Union still kept some resemblance of an economic grouping. Now it lost it altogether. And Fuhrer Ursula is mobilising everybody to re-militarise Europe.”

The top Russian diplomat also said the US wants the UK to take over as the lead country supporting Ukraine.

He claimed that Europe has increased their efforts to support Ukraine, and have become “more and more emphatic and I would even say nervous” in the process.

Lavrov slammed French president Emmanuel Macron’s threat to go nuclear against Russia as “very funny” too, claiming the country only has “three or four nuclear bombs”.

Trump is expected to call Putin in the coming days to discuss Ukraine while the president’s ally and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow this week.

The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already warned that if Russia rejects the ceasefire, he expects “strong steps” from the US