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MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin warned Europe on Tuesday that it would face swift defeat if it went to war with Russia, and dismissed European proposals on Ukraine just before a Kremlin meeting with two of U.S. President Donald Trump’s most powerful envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Trump has said he wants to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two but his efforts so far, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, have not yet brought peace.
A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscow’s main demands on NATO, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine’s army.
European powers then came up with a counter-proposal for peace and at talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an “updated and refined peace framework” to end the war.
Putin said on Tuesday that Europe had locked itself out of the peace talks but was now seeking to undermine Trump’s efforts by tabling proposals that it knew were unacceptable to Russia.
Putin says Europe trying to block peace
“They are on the side of war,” Putin said of the European powers. “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.”
“If Europe suddenly wants to start a war with us and starts it,” Putin said, then it would end so swiftly for Europe that there would be no one to negotiate with in Europe.
Putin also threatened to sever Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea.
As Putin spoke, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were walking on Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin with the Russian president’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Witkoff and Kushner were due to meet Putin later in the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow.
“There will be no easy solutions… It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraine’s back,” he said.
Putin says negotiations could lead to future agreement
Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine nearly four years ago, has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week “could be the basis for future agreements“.
Putin has said he is ready to talk peace but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, then Russia’s forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.
A Russian source said the Trump administration’s attempts to find peace represented the best chance to end the war since talks with Kyiv broke down shortly after Moscow’s 2022 invasion.
Conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution. Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists battled Kyiv’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces now control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km (45,000 square miles), up only one percentage point from two years ago, though they have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.
Russia says it has Pokrovsk, but Ukraine says it’s still fighting
Putin, in video footage released on the eve of Witkoff’s visit, hailed what his commanders said was Russia’s capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign.
Ukraine’s military told Reuters that its forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk.
U.S. officials have put the casualty toll in the war at more than 1.2 million killed or wounded. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses their losses. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities and forced many people from their homes.
Since the U.S. draft proposals emerged late last month, European powers have been trying to bolster Ukraine against what they see as a punitive pro-Russian peace deal that could open up Russia to U.S. investment in oil, gas and rare earths and return Moscow to the G8.
Key Russian demands include a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian army, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, recognition of Russian control of the regions of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.
Ukraine says these would amount to capitulation, and leave it vulnerable to eventual Russian conquest, though Washington has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.
Witkoff, Kushner, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council, for talks on Sunday near Miami.
Ukraine and European powers see the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia wins, then it will one day attack NATO members. Zelensky says Russia must not be rewarded for a war it started.
Russia has denied any plans to attack NATO, as it denied any plan to attack Ukraine before its full-scale invasion.
Tanker warning
Putin also threatened on Tuesday to sever Ukraine’s access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea.
“The most radical solution is to cut Ukraine off from the sea, then piracy will be impossible in principle,” Putin said in televised remarks.
He said Russia would intensify strikes on Ukrainian facilities and vessels, and would take measures against tankers of countries that help Ukraine.
Putin called recent attacks on tankers near Turkey piracy and said Russia would intensify strikes on Ukrainian facilities and vessels.
A Russian-flagged tanker loaded with sunflower oil reported a drone attack off the Turkish coast on Tuesday, but its 13 crew members were unharmed, Turkey’s maritime authority and the Tribeca shipping agency said.
Amid the heightened tensions, Besiktas Shipping, the Turkish owner of an oil tanker that was damaged by blasts near Senegal’s coast last week, said it had halted all Russia-related shipping operations, citing the escalating security risks in the region.
The vessel attacked on Tuesday, MIDVOLGA-2, reported coming under attack 80 miles (130 km) off the Turkish coast but did not make a request for assistance and was proceeding towards Turkey’s Sinop port, Turkey’s Maritime Affairs Directorate said on X.
Tribeca said the ship had been attacked by a drone. It was not immediately clear who had attacked the ship and Turkey’s Maritime Affairs Directorate did not provide additional details.
The maritime authority said the ship was sailing from Russia to Georgia, while Tribeca said it was bound for Mersin. Both said the ship was now en route to Sinop without assistance.
“The necessary messages were conveyed to the relevant parties, including Ukrainian authorities,” a Turkish official said when asked for comment, but gave no further details.
Attacks on Black Sea shipping
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that attacks on commercial ships in the Black Sea were unacceptable, issuing a warning to “all related sides”.
Ukrainian naval drones last week hit two tankers sanctioned by Kyiv and some of its Western allies in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load oil destined for foreign markets, as it attempts to pile pressure on Russia’s oil sector.
However, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said Ukraine was not involved in Tuesday’s attack, that it made “no sense” to attack the ship given its route to Georgia, adding this “suggests that Russia may have staged the whole thing”.
“Ukraine has nothing to do with this incident, and we officially refute any allegations of such kind made by Russian propaganda,” Tykhyi said on X.
Besiktas Shipping’s tanker was hit while anchored near Dakar a day after the Ukrainian naval drone attacks. It was not clear what had caused the explosions.
NATO member Turkey has maintained cordial ties with Kyiv and Moscow throughout the war. It has provided military support to Ukraine, but refused to join Western sanctions on Moscow.
It has previously hosted three rounds of peace talks between the warring sides in Istanbul and repeatedly offered to host a leaders’ meeting, saying an end to the war must be achieved now.
Ankara has also demanded navigational safety in the Black Sea, where it shares maritime borders with Russia and Ukraine.
(Reporting by by Guy Faulconbridge, Daren Butler, Tuvan Gumrukcu, and Vladimir Soldatkin, additional writing by Maxim Rodionov; editing by Lincoln Feast, Timothy Heritage, Gareth Jones, Thomas Derpinghaus, Alexander Smith and Ros Russell; Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and Enes Tunagur in London)