VLADIMIR Putin must be slapped with a strict peace deadline to end his deadly games in Ukraine, Keir Starmer said last night.
The PM issued his warning as European allies met in Paris to step up deployment plans to enforce any peace deal.
Britain, France, and Germany will send military chiefs to Kyiv for talks on creating a multinational force to ensure Russia sticks to any ceasefire.
Sir Keir accused Putin of stalling negotiations to buy time.
He declared: “They are playing games and they’re playing for time. It’s classic from the Putin playbook.”
While he stopped short of setting a precise deadline, he made clear he wants progress “in days and weeks, not months and months”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Putin is not ready for direct talks.
"He wants war, and what can a man who wants war say at peace talks? I’m not going to swallow his narrative. I’m not interested.”
Asked about US envoy Steve Witkoff’s comments that sending troops to Ukraine would be absurd, Mr Zelensky said: “For us, these people are from another planet.”
And when asked what he thought of any progress, he said: “The world moves slower than the country at war. It is going slowly — but I can’t push anyone.”
In a rare criticism of Moscow, Donald Trump said Russia might be “dragging their heels” at talks.
But Mr Zelensky demanded the US needed to get stronger against Vladimir Putin.
He spoke out after French TV asked if he agreed with President Emmanuel Macron — who, according to a journalist, called the US weak.
Mr Zelensky insisted: “We need the US to be stronger. We need to work with the White House.”
He singled out Mr Witkoff, saying Americans spoke of peace in abstract terms to Ukrainians.
Mr Witkoff was criticised for appearing to repeat Moscow’s points of view in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week.
After the meeting in Paris, Mr Macron threw his weight behind deploying European troops as a second security guarantee, warning: “It’s not up to Russia what happens on Ukrainian soil.”
Tensions remain high after Moscow accused Ukraine of attacks on Russian energy facilities, which Kyiv dismissed as Kremlin propaganda.
Mr Zelensky warned: “They’re dragging out the talks and trying to get the US stuck in endless, pointless discussions just to buy time and then try to grab more land.”
The 30-nation “coalition of the willing”, which includes the UK, France and Germany and backed by Nato and the EU, agreed sanctions against Moscow must remain tough to force genuine peace discussions.
Despite the Trump administration suggesting they might ease sanctions on Russian agricultural and maritime trade, Sir Keir insisted there was “complete clarity that now is not the time for lifting of sanctions”.
Mr Zelensky said sanctions was one of the few tools the world had to pressure Russia into serious talks.
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