Vladimir Putin has warned Moscow is "ready" for war if Europe seeks one, as he accused the continent's leaders of trying to sabotage US-led efforts to end the Ukraine conflict.
The Russian president lashed out at European leaders on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting with two of Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, aimed at ending the almost four-year-old war.
A leaked set of 28 US draft peace proposals emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials, who said it bowed to Moscow's main demands, offered Russia control of a fifth of Ukraine and would place restrictions on Ukraine's army.
European powers put forward a counter-proposal and at talks in Geneva last week, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an "updated and refined peace framework".
Mr Putin has now stepped up his rhetoric, saying that Europe risked locking itself out of talks and that its leaders were making "unacceptable" demands of Russia.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for a "dignified peace", having repeatedly stressed that Russia should not be rewarded for aggression.
'They are on the side of war'
Asked about Russian media reports that Hungary's Foreign Minister had cautioned that Europe was preparing a war against Russia, Mr Putin said that Moscow did not want a war with Europe.
"They are on the side of war," he said of Europe.
"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, we are ready right now," Mr Putin said.
He 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 the Russian president spoke, Mr Trump's special envoy Mr Witkoff and son-in-law Mr Kushner were walking at Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin with the Russian president's investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev.
Speaking with Mr Putin via a translator before the talks, Mr Witkoff said he and Mr Kushner had taken “a beautiful walk” around Moscow and described it as a “magnificent city".
Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner were later photographed meeting Mr Putin in the Kremlin.
Mr Zelenskyy, 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.
Mr Putin, who launched his full-scale invasion 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".
He 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.
Russia captures key Ukrainian city: Putin
Earlier Mr Putin said his country's troops had captured the city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, in what would represent an important operational win after an almost 18-month siege.
While the claims are yet to be independently verified, Moscow's forces have been gaining ground in the city — which was once an important logistics hub for Ukraine's army — for some time.
In a video released by the Kremlin late Monday, Mr Putin said for the first time his troops had captured the city.
"I want to thank you. This is an important direction. We all understand just how important," Mr Putin said in the video.
"It will ensure solutions going forward to the tasks that we initially set at the beginning of the special military operation," he added, employing the phrase Moscow uses to describe its nearly four-year military campaign in Ukraine."
On Tuesday, local time, Ukrainian military sources claimed the country's troops were still holding the northern parts of the city.
Pokrovsk had a pre-war population of around 60,000 people, but most of those fled long ago.
It's among the largest cities in the Donbas region, which Mr Putin has repeatedly identified as an important prize with regard to the motivations behind his full-scale invasion, which was ordered in February 2022.
After around 18 months of fierce fighting, Pokrovsk is now full of mainly empty, badly damaged buildings.
Strategically, however, it would help Moscow's forces continue their push to capture the roughly 10 per cent of Donbas territory that Ukraine still holds, and move north towards the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
Gaining control of the city, if confirmed, will have come at an enormous cost of lives for Mr Putin's forces.
In an update released in November, the UK's Foreign Office estimated Russia's troops had sustained around 100,000 casualties in and around Pokrovsk in the previous 12 months.
ABC with wires
