Britain is concerned that France and Germany will offer President Putin an “easy off-ramp” as they push for further peace talks with Russia.
Ministers have become increasingly concerned about bilateral discussions between President Macron and Putin.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, warned at the weekend that peace talks were a “smokescreen” for Putin while his forces commit further “appalling atrocities”. She is concerned that there will be a repeat of the Minsk agreement in 2014 after Russia’s invasion of Crimea, when Germany and France played a leading role in talks.
A government source said: “Any negotiations with Russia should come from a position of utmost strength. The G7 needs to stay united. There should be no easy off-ramp for Putin. We shouldn’t be in the business of making early concessions. We need to be tough to get peace.”
On Thursday Boris Johnson will head to a Nato summit in Brussels, which will also be attended by President Biden.
Advertisement
The prime minister is said to believe that negotiations should be between Russia and Ukraine directly.
“There’s no easy way out of this,” another government source said. “Ukraine has to be involved in these conversations. You can’t be a third party in that. We need to be very careful to put Ukraine’s interests first.” Russia yesterday said progress in peace talks had stalled. President Zelensky called on Germany to intensify sanctions on Russia. In a video addressing the German people, he said: “We warned your politicians that this is dangerous when Moscow decides what natural gas you get and at what price. We said sanctions were needed to prevent this war. Please don’t sponsor the war machine of this country, Russia. The occupier should not get a single euro.
“Close all of your ports to them. Don’t supply them with goods. Refuse Russian energy resources. Pressure Russia to leave Ukraine. I believe and know that peace is possible but you need to act for us to get peace.” There were claims yesterday that some European countries were pushing for a ban on Russian oil. However, Germany remains reluctant.
In Brussels Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said: “The question of an oil embargo is not a question of whether we want or don’t want [it] but a question of how much we depend on oil. Germany is importing a lot [of Russian oil] but there are also other member states who can’t stop the oil imports from one day to the other. If we could we would do it automatically.”
While Johnson will attend the Nato summit, he has not been invited to the European Council meeting on the same day. However, Charles Michel, president of the council, has agreed to meet Johnson to discuss issues around the Northern Ireland protocol and Brexit.
Advertisement
Yesterday Johnson discussed ensuring that the government in Kyiv had the “tools it needs to defend itself” in a call with Biden, Macron, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The prime minister underlined his horror at President Putin’s use of increasingly brutal tactics in Ukraine, such as siege warfare and the targeting of civilians.
“The leaders affirmed their ongoing commitment to support Ukraine militarily, diplomatically and economically, equipping the democratically elected government in Kyiv with the tools it needs to defend itself.
They also resolved to increase the pressure on Russia to halt its unprovoked invasion, including by maintaining wide-ranging and co-ordinated sanctions.
“The prime minister looked forward to further discussions at the Nato and G7 summits this week, including on how to increase military support to Ukraine to qualitatively improve their defensive capability.”
Advertisement
In a call to Michel yesterday afternoon, Johnson said that solutions to issues around the Northern Ireland protocol must be found in order to “protect peace and stability”.
A Downing Street spokesman said that the leaders agreed on “the importance of continued close co-operation and a united UK-EU response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine”.
“They also condemned the barbaric attacks on civilians, including in Mariupol over the weekend, and agreed that Putin posed a grave threat to wider European security and must be stopped,” the spokesman said.
“Ahead of this week’s Nato and G7 meetings, both the prime minister and the president of the European Council noted the importance of maintaining pressure on the Putin regime through sanctions and providing further financial assistance to the Ukrainian government.”
