The United States must team up with Europe now to raise pressure on Vladimir Putin and force him to negotiate an end to his war against Ukraine before the expiration of a Donald Trump-imposed deadline, EU foreign ministers said Saturday.
Speaking on their way into a gathering in Copenhagen, several ministers listed new EU sanctions, potential tariffs against Russian exports, use of Moscow’s frozen assets and hard security guarantees for Ukraine as avenues for pressuring the Russian leader and bolstering Kyiv’s position.
But French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and others underscored that while Europe will press ahead with these initiatives, they will only truly be effective if Washington joins in on the effort to pressure Putin.
“If in a few days, at the end of the two-week period he had indicated to [U.S.] President [Donald] Trump, Vladimir Putin continues to oppose a high-level meeting with the president of Ukraine, then we will need to force by hardening sanctions — sanctions from the United States, but also European sanctions,” Barrot told reporters in Copenhagen.
The EU is working on a 19th package of sanctions against Russia, most likely targeting the energy and financial sectors, while also exploring the possibility of new tariffs against Russian exports to turn the screws on Moscow’s economy, per a discussion paper seen by POLITICO.
But such actions need to be matched by the United States to persuade Putin to stop his attacks on Ukraine, agree to a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and finally accept a ceasefire in his war against Kyiv, other ministers said.
“Now we are working on the 19th sanctions package. I think it would be so important if we can do this with our transatlantic friends, notably the United States,” said Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen.
On Aug. 22, Trump set a two-week deadline — the latest in a series of deadlines — for Putin to agree to direct talks with Zelenskyy to end the war, threatening consequences if the Russian ruler failed. But EU leaders have voiced skepticism about the likelihood of this meeting taking place, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying it was unlikely to happen.
Hence the calls from other countries to raise the pressure now.
“We need to build up even bigger pressure on Putin,” said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency. “I think it’s quite obvious [Putin] is just trying to buy time and divert attention from attacks on civilians and infrastructure and most recently the EU representation in Kyiv.”
Washington is working closely with a number of EU countries — known as the “coalition of the willing” — on providing security guarantees for Ukraine after a ceasefire.
Barrot said that military leaders from the coalition of the willing nations, including the United States, had their first detailed discussions on how such security guarantees, which could include European troops on the ground, would work.
On Friday, the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said that a majority of EU countries were open to training Ukrainian soldiers in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
“You must put skin in the game,” said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. “Security guarantees must be formed as soon as possible.”
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