UK s Starmer Now is not the time for lifting sanctions

LONDON - European countries agreed at a summit in Paris March 27 to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.

President Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine’s European allies and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the latest effort to agree a coordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.

The US claims tentative progress towards a ceasefire to end the three-year conflict sparked by Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

But as yet, a peace deal appears far off and the meeting of over two dozen European heads of state and government also underlined differences within the “coalition of the willing”, with not all states signing onto the French-British plan to deploy troops postwar.

“He really wants to divide Europe and America, Putin really wants that,” Mr Zelensky said after the summit, adding Kyiv wants Washington to be “stronger” towards the Kremlin.

He warned that “everybody understood and understands that today Russia does not want any kind of peace”.

There appeared to be consensus around the table at the Elysee Palace that sanctions imposed against Russia should not be weakened, and rather intensified, until there is peace.

“There was complete clarity that now is not the time for the lifting of sanctions, quite the contrary – what we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the US initiative to bring Russia to the table from further pressure,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, alongside Mr Zelensky.

In a separate briefing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that lifting sanctions against Russia would be a “grave mistake” and “makes no sense” without a truce.

‘Reassurance force’

Mr Zelensky criticised “very