Moscow has urged the United States and other countries to ramp up pressure on Ukraine to discuss peace, as Kyiv said a dip in the intensity of Russia’s drone attacks on the city during a visit by a US envoy showed that the Kremlin was “afraid of America”.
Russia has played down a threat by Donald Trump to impose heavy tariffs on its oil exports unless it reaches a peace deal with Ukraine in 50 days. It took a similar view about his pledge to send more arms to Kyiv via Nato. Moscow has also declined to respond directly to the US president’s expressions of “disappointment” in Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“Mediation efforts mostly from the United States – President Trump and his team – are crucial here,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
“Even as there have been multiple statements and remarks about ‘disappointment’, hopefully, in parallel, some pressure is being put on the Ukrainian side.”
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Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha dismissed Russian claims that Kyiv was delaying peace talks, saying: “Ukraine has never been, is not and will not be an obstacle to peace.”
Mr Trump had pressed Ukraine to come to terms with Russia earlier this year and only now shows some signs of redressing the balance. The Kremlin still sees him as a favourable interlocutor, however, and accuses European states of unfairly pressuring him and aiming to prolong the war at all costs.
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“Europeans have become obsessed with their militaristic mindset, declaring their intention to spend unthinkable funds on arms purchases,” Mr Peskov said of this week’s deal for Nato states to buy US arms for Ukraine.
“Of course, this emotional state that borders on irrationality makes it very difficult to predict anything about the European continent.”
Mr Trump said on Tuesday that additional advanced Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine were “already being shipped from … Germany and then replaced by Germany. And in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full.”
Amid media reports that he had encouraged Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch missile strikes on Russia’s capital, Mr Trump said the Ukrainian president “shouldn’t target Moscow” and said the US was “not looking” to send long-range missiles to Kyiv.
Mr Zelenskiy noted that Russian drone strikes on Kyiv had decreased this week during a visit by Keith Kellogg, a US envoy appointed by Mr Trump.
“General Kellogg arrived and there were no massive bombings for two nights in a row … What does this mean? That Putin deliberately bombs civilians. But when the Americans are here, he doesn’t do it,” Mr Zelenskiy told US media outlet Newsmax.
“This means one thing: Putin is afraid of America. I’ve been saying this all along and I’ve also told the president,” he said, adding that he hoped Mr Trump would act resolutely if Russia failed to seek peace within 50 days.
“President Trump is giving Putin a chance to end this war … And I really want to believe that if Putin doesn’t draw conclusions, President Trump will really apply powerful sanctions that cannot be circumvented – first of all, in the energy and banking sectors.”
Russia launched about 400 explosive-laden drones at Ukraine early on Wednesday, mostly targeting Kharkiv and Kryvyi Rih in the east and Vinnytsia in the west. At least eight people were wounded in Vinnytsia, where a factory belonging to a Polish flooring producer was badly damaged.
“The plant manager told me just now that it was deliberate, from three directions. There are injuries, including two people severely burned,” Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said. “Putin’s criminal war is getting closer to our borders.”
