European leaders want tougher sanctions against Russia / Von der Leyen: “Pressure remains the only language Russia responds to”

The leaders of the European states that support Ukraine, the so-called “Coalition of the Will”, insisted on Tuesday, in a video conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to maintain pressure on Russia through sanctions, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, according to Reuters.

“As pressure remains the only language to which Russia responds, we will continue to step it up until there is a real willingness to commit to a credible path to peace,” she wrote on X.

She said that this coalition would continue to support Ukraine and that a central point in the negotiations was the financing of Ukraine, including through the use of frozen Russian sovereign assets.

The British prime minister hosted a virtual meeting of the “Coalition of the Will”, which was also attended by the Ukrainian president, the head of American diplomacy and the secretary general of NATO, write Reuters, CBS and The Guardian.

The White House says that “huge progress” has been made to resolve the war in Ukraine, but that “further discussions” are still needed between the parties to iron out “sensitive but not insurmountable details”

Donald Trump said he would meet with Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin “only when the agreement to end this war is final or in its final stages.”