Russia brushed off a threat from US president Donald Trump to target it with new sanctions and tariffs if it refused to make a deal to end its war in Ukraine, as Kyiv welcomed the White House tactic amid more missile and drone strikes by Moscow’s military.
“We do not see any particularly new elements here. You know that Trump, in the first iteration of his presidency, was the American president who most often resorted to sanctions methods – he likes these methods, or at least he liked them during his first presidency,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday, referring to Mr Trump’s spell in office from 2017-21.
“And so, of course, we very closely follow all the rhetoric, all the statements. We carefully note all the nuances,” he added, saying that Russian president Vladimir Putin was ready for “equal and mutually respectful dialogue” with Mr Trump, and the Kremlin was waiting “for signals that have not yet been received” from Washington.
Russian politicians also dismissed Mr Trump’s post on social media, in which he wrote that he was doing Mr Putin “a very big FAVOR” by helping to end the near three-year war because his “Economy is failing” and “IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE”.
Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said Mr Trump’s comment, “in the absence of any messages to Ukraine, confirms that the level of his understanding of the causes, current state and prospects for resolving the Ukrainian conflict ... is the lowest ever. Which can only cause regret and concern”.
Leonid Ivlev, a deputy from the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said “it seems that Trump does not know what to do”.
“And threatening us with ultimatums, scaring us with tariffs is empty talk, this does not work with Russia. If Trump decided to speak to Russia in the language of ultimatums, then he chose a mistaken and dead-end strategy,” he added.
Kyiv welcomed Mr Trump’s comments, as it pushes for ironclad security guarantees from western powers – and a real prospect of Nato membership – before entering into any direct negotiations with Russia.
“We do really welcome such strong messages from President Trump and we believe that he will be the winner. And we believe that we have an additional chance to get new dynamic in diplomatic efforts to end this war,” said Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said “ending the war in Ukraine must be a victory for Trump, not for Putin. Putin is nobody for him. America is much stronger, Europe is much stronger, China is stronger than Russia. They are all players”.
He also said it was essential that the US continued to provide military and other support to Kyiv because European states could not do it alone, amid increasingly open discussion of whether western soldiers could serve as peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the presence of Nato troops in Ukraine would “threaten an uncontrollable escalation of the conflict and be categorically unacceptable to Russia”.
At least one person was killed and more than 30 injured early on Thursday when Russia launched a missile and drone strike on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine. A power facility was badly damaged, leaving some 21,000 without electricity and 17,000 without heat.
Heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces said they were continuing to advance in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions. Ukraine said it had video evidence of Russian troops shooting dead six unarmed prisoners of war in Donetsk region; Moscow has denied previous such allegations.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
