Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after attending the Russia Calling! Investment Forum in Moscow, Russia, 2 December 2025. Photo: EPA / Sergey Ilnitsky
As US President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner waited for their face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, the Russian leader told reporters that Russia was “ready right now” for war with Europe should it attack.
“Russia does not intend to fight European countries, but if Europe starts a war, Russia is ready right now,” Putin told the press after delivering a speech to the Russia Calling! Investment Forum on Tuesday evening.
Putin added that if Europe started a war with Russia, “a situation may quickly arise where we will have no one to negotiate with,” noting that the EU had “removed itself from the negotiation process” and was now “preventing the Trump administration from reaching an agreement”, he added.
European counterproposals for a Ukrainian peace deal were unacceptable to Russia and were aimed at blocking the peace process, Putin continued, adding that he hoped that Europe would return to negotiations “on the basis of reality, based on the situation on the ground”.
Putin also described the recent attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on oil tankers belonging to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea as “piracy” and said that the Russian military would expand their strikes on Ukrainian ports and the ships entering them, even threatening to “cut Ukraine off from the sea” should the strikes continue.
