VLADIMIR Putin has been urged to hold “direct serious negotiations” with Ukraine’s president and told to withdraw his troops by the leaders of France and Germany.
Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron made the demands during an 80-minute conversation with the Russian president.
The German Chancellor’s office said the two leaders insisted on an “immediate ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops”.
However, Ukrainian presidential adviser and peace talks negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak earlier said that any agreement with Russia cannot be trusted.
Meanwhile, the West is working to break the Russian blockade on Ukrainian ports in order to “avert a global food crisis” by releasing millions of tons of grain, Boris Johnson has said.
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The Prime Minister spoke yesterday morning with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about international efforts to put a stop to the “despicable blockade” of Odesa, Ukraine’s major southern port on the Black Sea.
The conversation between the leaders comes after Johnson revealed this week that the West was supporting the Ukrainians to demine the Black Sea and reopen international shipping lanes.
Ukraine was known as the “bread basket of Europe” and was one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.
Giving details of the phone call, a No 10 spokeswoman said: “The leaders spoke about Putin’s despicable blockade of Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest shipping port.
“The Prime Minister outlined to President Zelenskyy the intensive work taking place with international partners to find ways to resume the export of grain from Ukraine to avert a global food crisis.
“He said that the UK would work with G7 partners to push for urgent progress.
“The leaders agreed next steps and the imperative for Russia to relax its blockade and allow safe shipping lanes.”
Russia has suggested the blockade could be relaxed in return for international sanctions being eased but Johnson said Putin was “completely not to be trusted”.
The Prime Minister said the UK was looking to work with international partners to “help the Ukrainians to demine the approaches to the harbour” in Odesa.
But he added: “That will be something they have to do themselves.”
Downing Street confirmed that Johnson and Zelenskyy also spoke about the “equipment” Kyiv’s defenders need to battle against the “barbaric” Russian onslaught in the Donbas.
Kremlin forces were yesterday making slow but steady gains in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartlands amid fears Russia will subject the same devastation to towns and cities in the region as was delivered on the battered southern port of Mariupol.
The fighting in Donbas focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk.
They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up Donbas, and where Russian-backed separatists have already controlled some territory for eight years.
The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, has warned that Ukrainian soldiers may have to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to avoid being surrounded.
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