Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday visited Russia's Kursk region for first time since Moscow said it drove out Ukrainian forces

Agencies KYIV

Ukraine will ask the EU next week to consider big new steps to isolate Moscow, including seizing Russian assets and bringing in sanctions for some buyers of Russian oil, as U.S. President Donald Trump has backed off from tightening sanctions.A previously unreported Ukrainian white paper to be presented to the EU calls for the 27-member bloc to take a more aggressive and independent position on sanctions as uncertainty hangs over Washington's future role.

Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday rejected Ukrainian and European accusations it was trying to drag out the peace process around Ukraine, but said that no decision had yet been made on a venue for talks when asked if they could be hosted by the Vatican.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday that Pope Leo had confirmed to her that he was willing to host the next round of negotiations.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia welcomed "the readiness and efforts of all parties who want to contribute to a speedy settlement", but nothing had been decided yet about where the next meeting should be held.Moscow had not received any specific proposals from the Vatican, he said.

The warring sides met in Istanbul last week for their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022 and agreed a swap of 1,000 prisoners on each side, but Russia did not agree to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire that Ukraine was seeking. Among 40 pages of recommendations were calls to adopt legislation that would speed up the EU's seizure of assets from sanctioned individuals, and send them to Ukraine. Those under sanctions could then seek compensation from Russia.

The EU should consider a range of steps to make its sanctions apply more forcefully beyond its own territory, including targeting foreign companies that use its technology to help Russia, and "the introduction of secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian oil".Such secondary sanctions, which could hit big buyers such as India and China, would be a major step that Europe has so far been reluctant to take.

Trump had publicly discussed this before taking the decision not to act for now.The white paper also calls for the EU to consider using more majority-rules decision making over sanctions, to prevent individual member states from blocking measures that otherwise require unanimity.

After speaking to Putin on Monday, Trump opted not to impose fresh sanctions on Russia, dashing hopes of European leaders and Kyiv who had been lobbying him for weeks to ratchet up pressure on Moscow.Trump spoke to Ukrainian and European leaders after his call with Putin and told them he didn't want to impose sanctions now and to give time for talks to take place, a person familiar with conversation told Reuters.