West waits for Putin's verdict on Ukraine ceasefire

Donald Trump suggested yesterday he could target Russia financially as Ukraine's president urged him to take strong steps if Moscow failed to support a 30-day ceasefire agreed by Ukrainian and US delegations.

- Shaun Walker, Pjotr Sauer Andrew Roth, Dan Sabbagh

The president's threat came as France's defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told a press conference in Paris that a ceasefire announcement could come as soon as today and that Europe would have to be prepared to help enforce it.

Washington, Kyiv and Europe are waiting for Moscow's response to the ceasefire proposal, agreed at a meeting in Saudi Arabia, and US envoys are expected to hold talks with Vladimir Putin by the end of the week. The Kremlin has not yet said whether it supports an immediate ceasefire.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he understood that "we could count on strong steps" if Putin refused to accept. "I don't know the details yet," added Zelenskyy. "But we are talking about sanctions and about strengthening Ukraine."

Donald Trump said yesterday that he had received "positive messages" regarding the ceasefire, but "a positive message means nothing". The White House later said that Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, would be in Moscow later this week. "It's up to Russia now," Trump said from the White House. "Our people are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia."

Trump did not directly promise to target Russia with sanctions if Vladimir Putin does not sign the deal, but said he could "do things financially that would be very bad for Russia".

He added, however: "I don't want to do that, because I want to get peace."

Asked whether he believed Putin would hold to a ceasefire, given that he had broken them in the past, Trump said: "We haven't spoken to him yet with substance, because we just found out. We're going to know very soon. I've gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing. This is a very serious situation. This is a situation that could lead to world war three."