(4 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels, Belgium – 4 April 2025
1. Various of UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy and French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arriving
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Affairs Minister:
"Three weeks ago, Ukraine made an important compromise and accepted a ceasefire without any condition brokered by our U.S. partners. Over the past three weeks, Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes. Today, Russia owes an answer to the United States that have worked very hard to come up with a mediation effort and a cease-fire proposal. They have to come up with an answer. It has to be yes, it has to be no, and it has to be a quick answer."
3. Wide of Barrot and Lammy
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Affairs Minister:
"Our teams alongside teams of our colleagues of other coalition countries are working to prepare for efforts needed to make sure that the peace, whenever it’s reached, can be lasting. And this means building a very strong Ukrainian army that is going to be the first layer of any guaranteed peace in a lasting sense. And second, there will be at some point need for military capacity or reassurance whenever peace is reached. And this is the reason why our army chiefs will be in Kyiv today in order to advance this work because our goal is to reach peace and for this peace to be just and to be lasting."
5. Mid of Barrot and Lammy
6. SOUNDBITE (English) David Lammy, UK Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs:
"And of course we continue to work together, bringing together an alliance of the willing as we focus in on an enduring peace that lasts and keeps the Euro-Atlantic area safe. It was France and the UK that came together to provide Ukraine with long-range strike capabilities, needed to face down this assault from Russia. And as we have heard, it is still the case that our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet. He could accept a ceasefire now. He continues to bombard Ukraine, its civilian population, its energy supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing. And that is why we are pledged to continue to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position, militarily, economically, and with the humanitarian context that they need."
7. Barrot and Lammy leaving
STORYLINE:
Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks and ramped up pressure on Moscow by insisting that he owes the United States an immediate answer.
Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting and a Kremlin official said on Monday that Moscow views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as “a drawn-out process.”
“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.
Both countries are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force to police any future peace in Ukraine.
Lammy said that while the Russian leader should be accepting a ceasefire, “he continues to bombard Ukraine. It’s civilian population. It’s energy supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing.”
AP video by Ahmad Seir
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