Europe's leaders back Trump call for frontline freeze but Russia says no

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejects the idea of halting the conflict at the current contact line.

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In a statement signed by 11 leaders including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, they said they "strongly support" US President Donald Trump's position that "the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations".

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday dismissed the idea of halting the conflict at the current contact line.

Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.

The European statement referred to "Russia's stalling tactics", indicating how intractable Moscow's position remained.