LONDON: Britain on Friday called for a raft of measures against Russia to strengthen Ukraine’s hand ahead of any future peace talks, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky heads to London for discussions with key allies.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said he would press a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” countries that have pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine to take Russian oil and gas off the global market, use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, and give Kyiv more long-range missiles.
The meeting comes after US President Donald Trump hit Russia’s two biggest oil companies with sanctions, in a dramatic U-turn after he said last week that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would soon hold a summit in Budapest to try to end the war in Ukraine.
Starmer said Putin had shown he was not serious about proposals to end the war.
“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace,” Starmer said in a statement.
“We must ratchet up the pressure on Russia and build on President Trump’s decisive action.”
Friday’s talks in London will be a mixture of in-person and virtual, with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expected to join Starmer and Zelensky in London.
Zelensky welcomed Trump’s energy sanctions in a trip to Brussels on Thursday, where he also urged European leaders to give Kyiv long-range weapons and use frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine further.
Moscow has said it would deliver a “painful response” if the assets were seized under the plan to use them to provide a 140 billion-euro loan to Kyiv.
In another bid to starve Moscow of revenue, the EU approved a 19th package of sanctions that includes a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports.
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Britain calls for strong measures against Russia as Ukraine’s Zelensky heads to London
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Britain calls for strong measures against Russia as Ukraine’s Zelensky heads to London
- Starmer said Putin had shown he was not serious about proposals to end the war
Austria turns Hitler’s home into a police station
BRAUNAU AM INN: Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany.
While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have “been used better or differently,” the 53-year-old office assistant told AFP.
The government wants to “neutralize” the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner.
Austria — which was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938 — has repeatedly been criticized in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust.
The far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a national election for the first time in 2024, though it failed to form a government.
Last year, two streets in Braunau am Inn commemorating Nazis were renamed after years of complaints by activists.
- ‘Problematic’ -
The house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and lived for a short period of his early life, is right in the center of town on a narrow shop-lined street.
A memorial stone in front reads: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn.”
When AFP visited this week, workers were putting the finishing touches to the renovated facade.
Officers are scheduled to move in during “the second quarter of 2026,” the interior ministry said.
But for author Ludwig Laher, a member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria that represents Holocaust victims, “a police station is problematic, as the police... are obliged, in every political system, to protect what the state wants.”
An earlier idea to turn the house into a place where people would come together to discuss peace-building had “received a lot of support,” he told AFP.
Jasmin Stadler, a 34-year-old shop owner and Braunau native, said it would have been interesting to put Hitler’s birth in the house in a “historic context,” explaining more about the house.
She also slammed the 20-million-euro ($24-million) cost of the rebuild.
- ‘Bit of calm’ -
But others are in favor of the redesign of the house, which many years ago was rented by the interior ministry and housed a center for people with disabilities before it fell into disrepair.
Wolfgang Leithner, a 57-year-old electrical engineer, said turning it into a police station would “hopefully bring a bit of calm,” avoiding it becoming a shrine for far-right extremists.
“It makes sense to use the building and give it to the police, to the public authorities,” he said.
The office of Braunau’s conservative mayor declined an AFP request for comment.
Throughout Austria, debate on how to address the country’s Holocaust history has repeatedly flared.
Some 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and 130,000 forced into exile during Nazi rule.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany.
While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have “been used better or differently,” the 53-year-old office assistant told AFP.
The government wants to “neutralize” the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner.
Austria — which was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938 — has repeatedly been criticized in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust.
The far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a national election for the first time in 2024, though it failed to form a government.
Last year, two streets in Braunau am Inn commemorating Nazis were renamed after years of complaints by activists.
- ‘Problematic’ -
The house where Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, and lived for a short period of his early life, is right in the center of town on a narrow shop-lined street.
A memorial stone in front reads: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism. Millions of Dead Warn.”
When AFP visited this week, workers were putting the finishing touches to the renovated facade.
Officers are scheduled to move in during “the second quarter of 2026,” the interior ministry said.
But for author Ludwig Laher, a member of the Mauthausen Committee Austria that represents Holocaust victims, “a police station is problematic, as the police... are obliged, in every political system, to protect what the state wants.”
An earlier idea to turn the house into a place where people would come together to discuss peace-building had “received a lot of support,” he told AFP.
Jasmin Stadler, a 34-year-old shop owner and Braunau native, said it would have been interesting to put Hitler’s birth in the house in a “historic context,” explaining more about the house.
She also slammed the 20-million-euro ($24-million) cost of the rebuild.
- ‘Bit of calm’ -
But others are in favor of the redesign of the house, which many years ago was rented by the interior ministry and housed a center for people with disabilities before it fell into disrepair.
Wolfgang Leithner, a 57-year-old electrical engineer, said turning it into a police station would “hopefully bring a bit of calm,” avoiding it becoming a shrine for far-right extremists.
“It makes sense to use the building and give it to the police, to the public authorities,” he said.
The office of Braunau’s conservative mayor declined an AFP request for comment.
Throughout Austria, debate on how to address the country’s Holocaust history has repeatedly flared.
Some 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed and 130,000 forced into exile during Nazi rule.
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