Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene, speaking to DW on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense and foreign ministers on Friday, said of the situation in Ukraine: “It’s crucial that the Ukrainian army is kept strong, because that is the first security guarantee. That is the first line of defense.” 

“Secondly, of course,” said Sakaliene, “financial pain to Russia. So that means that the next sanctions package has to be more ambitious.”

“Lithuania has always been pressuring for more secondary sanctions by the United States. That would be a nuclear option that would actually hurt the Russian war machine, that would hurt cash flow to the Russian war machine significantly,” she said. 

“And of course, finding a way to make use of those over €200 billion ($234 billion) that are on the table of Russian assets, which still are not used for the benefit of Ukraine,” she added.
 
Talking about Europe’s strategic dependence on the US, Sakaliene said the US had been metaphorically “carrying” EU and NATO partners “for quite some time,” adding that now “we need to walk next to them” and carry more of the load when it comes to defending Ukraine and Europe.

Sakaliene voiced uneasiness over the idea of Donald Trump negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin while also acknowledging that every avenue potentially leading to peace must be considered: “We are never going to trust Russia. It doesn’t really matter if it’s Putin or somebody else. At the same time, nobody has a better alternative and the game is not over.”

Asked if Trump could be trusted, Sakaliene said, “I would not talk about trust. I would say that we are watching, we are participating and we try to do our part. That’s all that we can do at this time.”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday suggested that Donald Trump may be getting played by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump — who was recently caught on an open mic telling Macron, “I think he [Putin] wants to make a deal for me…. as crazy as that sounds” — promised on August 18 that he would bring about ceasefire talks in two weeks’ time or else Russia would face serious consequences. 

This coming Monday marks the two-week deadline and there is no sign that Putin has any intention of stopping the bombing and meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate an end to his war of aggression on neighboring Ukraine.

“If that doesn’t happen by Monday, the deadline set by President Trump, it means that once again President Putin played President Trump,” said Macron in remarks delivered at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Toulon, France.

“I hope it [the meeting between Putin and Zelensky] takes place but if not… we will push for primary and secondary sanctions, which will pressure Russia and force it to come to the negotiating table,” said Macron.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, too, spoke of the two-week deadline set by Trump in a social media statement, writing, “Two weeks will be on Monday. And we will remind everybody.”

With Russian missiles and drones continuing to devastate Ukraine while the Kremlin claims it is interested in peace, Macron also warned that Putin had a habit of saying one thing at international talks and then doing quite another when executing his wars.
      
“The gap between President Putin’s positions at international summits and the reality on the ground shows how insincere he is,” said the French president.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the southern port city of Toulon, where the two leaders talked about shared security challenges — above all, the war in Ukraine.

After the meeting, Merz said Russia was ignoring all diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking in southern France, vowed further security assistance for Kyiv and more economic sanctions against Moscow in the face of increasingly intense Russian airstrikes on Ukraine.

Speaking in Toulon, Merz said he was “not surprised” at the Kremlin’s stalling, saying, “It is part of this Russian president’s strategy.” 

“Earlier this week,” Merz continued, “it became clear to me that President Putin is unwilling to meet with President Zelensky and has set preconditions that are downright unacceptable.”

In a joint statement released after the two met, Germany and France said, “despite intensive international diplomatic efforts, Russia shows no intention to end its war of aggression against Ukraine.”

“In light of the massive Russian airstrikes on Ukraine and its population, and the consequences for our own security, France and Germany will therefore provide additional air defense to Ukraine,” the statement continued. 

Both Berlin and Paris agreed “on the need to provide Ukraine with credible security guarantees” in the event that the war can be ended. 

Neither nation, however, has committed to the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine.

The second prong of the joint approach, the statement said, was to “consider the effective implementation and further strengthening of sanctions essential to exert maximum pressure on Russia to end its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, and ultimately bring peace to Ukraine and Europe.”

Accordingly, Berlin and Paris will push for both EU and G7 sanctions targeting third-country businesses supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as part of their effort.

EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas on Friday said member states broadly support the idea of providing military training inside Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia. The EU has already trained more than 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers but none inside its borders.

Kallas suggested the effort could be integrated into the West’s security package for ally Ukraine if a ceasefire comes to fruition. 

“I welcome that there is broad support today to expand our EU military mission mandate to provide training and advice inside Ukraine after any truce,” said Kallas after meeting with EU defense ministers. “We must be ready to do more. This could include placing EU trainers in Ukrainian military academies and institutions,” she said. 

A formal change to the bloc’s defense mandate would require unanimity among all 27 member states.

Beyond dragging his feet and refusing to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has also greatly increased the scale of Russia’s nightly attacks on Ukraine as US and European efforts to end the war in Ukraine appear very much stalled.

“The past weeks we have seen diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war and it’s clear that Europe wants peace, America wants peace, Ukraine wants peace.” The only actor “who doesn’t want peace,” Kallas said, “is Russia.”

Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he discussed steps that could help secure a just and lasting peace in the war with Russia with his counterparts from the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” member countires.

“Jointly developed practical solutions, supported by real mechanisms of political and diplomatic support from reliable partners of Ukraine, are capable of ensuring a just and lasting peace for Ukraine and all of Europe,” Syrskyi said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is amassing a force of about 100,000 troops near Pokrovsk, a stronghold in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

“There is a build-up and concentration of the enemy there. Up to 100,000. That’s what we have as of this morning. They are preparing offensive actions in any case,” Zelenskyy told journalists.

He also said that Ukrainian forces were pushing Russian troops out of the northeastern border region of Sumy.

Moscow vehemently denounced Emmanuel Macron for what it termed “vulgar insults” after the French president characterized Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a “predator” and an “ogre.”

During an interview with LCI last week, Macron cautioned European leaders against trusting Putin. “For his own survival, he needs to keep eating… That means he is a predator, an ogre at our gates,” Macron said.

In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters in Moscow that Macron constantly makes strange statements that sometimes cross the line of decency and turn into “low-grade insults.”

“This is unworthy of a head of state,” she said.

Russia has long criticized France’s support for Ukraine, accusing Paris of provoking the conflict.

Russia has not ruled out a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

“However, Putin believes that any meeting at the highest level must be well prepared so that the results previously achieved at the expert level can be finalized,” he said.

However, thus far, work at the expert level has not progressed at all, Peskov added.

Peskov was responding to statements by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Thursday that it was “obvious” that Zelenskyy an Putin would not be having a face-to-face summit, despite previous assurances from the United States to that end.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump also cast doubt on a Zelenskyy-Putin meeting, despite previously saying “arrangements for a meeting” between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders had begun.

The Ukrainian military announced that it had carried out an overnight strike on a facility in Russia’s western Bryansk region that it says supplies diesel fuel for Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.

According to a statement from Ukraine’s General Staff, the station in the village of Naitopovichi has a pumping capacity of around 10.5 million tons per year.

The statement also said that the strike caused a fire.

Ukraine has previously struck Russian oil facilities many times. Ukraine argues that Russia’s oil industry helps fund Moscow’s war efforts.

The Swedish government summoned the Russian ambassador in Stockholm to protest Russia’s continued attacks on Ukrainian cities and civilians, it said in a statement.

“It is clear that Russia is not interested in peace as it continues its attacks all over Ukraine. Now is the time to maximize pressure on Russia, including through more sanctions,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard wrote on X.

On Thursday, the EU and the UK also summoned Russian envoys to protest Moscow’s massive attack on Ukraine that same day, which caused damage to the EU mission, a British government cultural building and two media outlets’ offices.

Following the Thursday’s Russian air attack on Kyiv, which resulted in at least 23 deaths, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Friday that eight people were still missing.

“The fate of eight people still remains unknown, and 53 others were injured,” he wrote on X.

According to the Ukrainian leader, four children were among the deceased. “The youngest girl was not even three years old,” Zelenskyy said.

The president offered his condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were killed.

“Russia only understands strength, and demonstrations of strength are needed now,” Zelenskyy said, again urging allies to impose harsher sanctions on Moscow.

Ukrainian authorities said that Russian strikes overnight had killed two people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

“Unfortunately, two people died — a man and a woman. My sincere condolences to their relatives,” wrote Sergiy Lysak, the head of the regional military administration, on Telegram.

Lysak said the drone strike on the Synelnyky district also wounded a 50-year-old woman. A separate attack on the city of Dnipro wounded two people, including a 46-year-old man who was in a “serious condition”, he added.

The strikes occurred just days after Kyiv acknowledged the Russian army’s advance into the east of the central Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time.

Before the meeting of EU defense ministers in Copenhagen, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said secondary sanctions on Russia would be the most efficient way to stop the flow of funds to the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.

Sakaliene also said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “cheaply buying time to kill more people and to imitate willingness to maybe stop his own murderous actions.”

“Putin is not to be trusted,” she said.

Meanwhile, Irish Defense Minister Simon Harris said considering more sanctions was “imperative” to pressure Russia into ending the war.

In turn, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said NATO membership would be the best security guarantee for Ukraine.

Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonsson said EU troops could be sent on a mission to Ukraine if needed, but a ceasefire or peace agreement is needed before there is consensus on the matter. 

Sebastian Hartmann, the deputy of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, said Ukraine could rely on Europe, and expressed support to an initiative by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to provide Kyiv with 2 million more rounds of ammunition. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Thursday that the bloc’s 19th package of sanctions will be presented soon.

Arriving at a two-day meeting of EU defense and foreign affairs ministers in Copenhagen, European Union chief diplomat Kaja Kallas strongly condemned a deadly wave of heavy airstrikes on Kyiv and urged more sanctions on Russia.

“These attacks show that Putin is just mocking any kind of peace efforts that are made,” Kallas said.

“What we have to do is increase pressure on Russia,” she said, adding that new sanctions on Russian energy exports and financial services “will hurt them the most.”

In addition to punitive measures against Russia, Kallas urged EU countries to continue supplying Ukraine with arms.

Ministers gathered in the Danish capital will also discuss security guarantees for Ukraine once the fighting is over.