Russian President Vladimir Putin ratcheted up tensions with Europe on Tuesday, warning that if the bloc sparked a war with Russia, Moscow was prepared to meet it.
Putin also blasted European leaders, accusing them of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the nearly four-year-old war in Ukraine.
"But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that," Putin said, according to European powers had locked themselves out of peace talks on Ukraine because they cut off contacts with Moscow.
"They are on the side of war," Putin said.
He also suggested the conflict in Ukraine was not a full-blown war, describing Russia’s actions as "surgical" — a restraint, he said, that would not apply in a direct confrontation with European powers, according to Marco Rubio and Kushner in Florida to meet with Ukrainian negotiators. Rubio described the meeting as "very productive." In a statement, Rubio said the goal is "not just the end of the war."
Last week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow could reject the White House’s peace framework if it does not uphold the "spirit and letter" of what Trump and Putin agreed to at the Alaska summit in August. He said that if the "key understandings" were watered down, the situation would become "fundamentally different."
Despite Lavrov’s comments, Putin showed interest in Trump’s effort to end the war, calling the drafted plan a starting point.
"We need to sit down and discuss this seriously," Putin told reporters, according to the AP.
He characterized Trump’s plan as "a set of issues put forward for discussion," rather than a draft agreement.
Fox News’ Andrea Margolis, Sarah Tobianski, Kyle Schmidbauer and Ashley Carnahan as well as The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.