With little progress after phone calls and talks, Ukraine’s allies hit Russia with new sanctions

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and YEHOR KONOVALOV Associated Press KYIV Ukraine AP Kyiv s European allies slapped new sanctions Tuesday on Moscow a day after a phone call between U S President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the -year-old war in Ukraine We have made clear again and again that we completely expect one thing from Russia now namely a ceasefire unconditional and immediate German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul explained in addressing the sanctions We welcome the fact that Ukraine is still prepared to do this We note with disappointment that Russia has not yet taken this decisive step and we will have to react to this Diplomatic efforts have seen little progress in halting the fighting including Monday s phone call between Trump and Putin and Friday s direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul In the phone call Putin promised Trump that Russia is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum outlining the framework for a accomplishable future peace treaty European Union foreign agenda chief Kaja Kallas speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels Tuesday May AP Photo Virginia Mayo It appears that Putin has devised a way to offer Trump an interim tangible outcome from Washington s peace efforts without making any real concessions commented Tatiana Stanovaya a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in a post on X Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on his Telegram channel that it is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently The new European Union sanctions targeted almost ships from Russia s shadow fleet illicitly transporting oil to skirt Western restrictions It also imposed asset freezes and trip bans on several personnel as well as on a number of Russian companies Ukrainian executives have reported about aging ships of uncertain ownership and safety practices are dodging sanctions and keeping oil revenues flowing to Moscow The U K also targeted the shadow fleet with new sanctions and also aimed at disrupting the supply chains of Russian weapons administrators noted Putin s latest strikes once again show his true colors as a warmonger British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced Trump has threatened to step up sanctions and tariffs on Russia but hasn t acted so far Ukraine has offered a comprehensive -day ceasefire which Moscow has effectively rejected by imposing far-reaching conditions and Zelenskyy proposed a face-to-face meeting with Putin last week but the Russian leader spurned that offer Trump who had pledged during his campaign to end the war in one day revealed his personal intervention was needed to push peace efforts forward He held separate phone calls with both Putin and Zelenskyy and mentioned the two countries would forthwith begin ceasefire negotiations but there were no details on when or where such talks might take place The status quo has not changed Mykhailo Podoliak a senior adviser to Zelenskyy wrote on the social platform X on Tuesday Russia launched Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight the Ukrainian air force revealed One drone dropped explosives on a patron bus in the Dniprovskyi district of the Kherson region injuring two people the local administration explained Putin wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO sharply cut its military and withdraw its forces from the four Ukrainian regions Moscow has seized but doesn t fully control among other demands to curb the country s sovereignty Various Russian news outlets struck a triumphal tone in reporting Putin s conversation with Trump State news agency RIA Novosti published an article headlined Europe s hopes crushed Trump refuses to go to war with Putin In the pro-Kremlin tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets columnist Mikhail Rostovsky also portrayed the call as a blow for Ukraine s European allies Kyiv will agree to a serious fully fledged conversation with Russia only if it has no other options left Trump is gradually cutting off these other options for Zelenskyy he wrote And this is very very good Since Trump took office Washington has urged Russia and Ukraine to end Europe s biggest conflict since World War II After Monday s phone calls European leaders remained skeptical about Russia s intentions Putin has never changed his position Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur explained in Brussels Russia certainly doesn t want to end this war EU foreign initiative chief Kaja Kallas declared Russia s failure to negotiate in good faith should trigger the threatened U S sanctions We really haven t seen you know the pressure on Russia from these talks she announced In Kyiv there was skepticism about Putin s motives Peace is not accomplishable now Only when the Russians run out of materials and army manpower They are ready to fight at least for this summer Svitlana Kyryliuk communicated The Associated Press Putin will stall for time and that s it she stated Volodymyr Lysytsia a -year-old serviceman visiting the capital for rehabilitation noted Putin has made the front lines in eastern Ukraine a wasteland with nothing there only scorched earth everything bombed Particular were unconvinced by Putin s promise to Trump that Russia is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum outlining the framework for a achievable future peace treaty The first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow s invasion ended after less than two hours Friday and while both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap they clearly remained far apart on key conditions to end the fighting Lorne Cook in Brussels Katie Marie Davies in Manchester England and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed