Trump’s Patience Ebbing with both Putin and Zelensky
President Donald Trump suggested sanctions might come Ukraine’s way if Zelensky doesn’t move to make a deal with Russia. He suggested, “Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week. If I can save that, by doing sanctions or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have.”
As a deal seems less likely, Russia has launched a major aerial assault on Kyiv while Ukraine’s drones are taking a significantly slice out of Russia’s supplies, including its oil refineries. Reports of Russian drones following U.S. routes in German, along with friction between Hungary and Ukraine over a bombed crucial oil pipeline for Hungary, suggest the risk for a general European war escalation are still extremely high.
Trump threatens sanctions and tariffs on Ukraine — RT World News– www.rt.com Source Link Excerpt:
Russia will not face restrictions alone if no progress in settling the conflict is made, the US president has warned
Washington could impose sanctions and tariffs on both Russia and Ukraine if the two adversaries fail to make progress in settling hostilities, US President Donald Trump has said.
Trump made the remarks to reporters at the White House on Tuesday. The US president said that it “takes two to tango,” suggesting that Ukraine’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky, “was not exactly innocent” as far as the lack of progress in ending the conflict.
“Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week. If I can save that, by doing sanctions or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have,” Trump stated.
He also reiterated his readiness to slap new restrictions on Moscow. “We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war,” he said.
Trump also seized the opportunity to take jabs at his predecessor Joe Biden, calling him “grossly incompetent” for allowing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to happen in the first place.
DIFFERENT NIGHT, SAME TARGETS: As President Donald Trump considers tightening the economic screws on Moscow sometime in the near but indeterminate future, the air war in Ukraine has settled into almost Groundhog Day-like predictability, with both sides working to gain an advantage as peace prospects fade.
Russia launched another massive attack on Kyiv overnight, hitting familiar civilian targets, a five-story apartment building, a kindergarten, a shopping mall in the center of the city, and an office building housing the European Union delegation to Ukraine. The strikes, which employed almost 600 drones, 20 cruise missiles, nine ballistic missiles, and two Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, hit more than 20 sites and are being described as “the fiercest Russian attack since the Trump-Putin summit.”
“Right now in Kyiv, first responders are clearing the rubble of an ordinary residential building after a Russian strike,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyposted on X this morning. “Tragically, at least 8 people have already been confirmed dead. One of them is a child. People may still be trapped under the rubble. Dozens are wounded.” The death toll has since grown to at least 14 civilians killed, including three children, with 38 injured.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences. Russia still takes advantage of the fact that at least part of the world turns a blind eye to murdered children and seeks excuses for Putin,” Zelensky said. “All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined,” he said. “It is definitely time for new, tough sanctions against Russia for everything it is doing.”
Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive Russian drone and missile attack hit Ukraine’s capital early Thursday, including a rare strike in the center of the city, killing at least 14 people including three children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It was the first major Russian combined attack on Kyiv in weeks, and it comes as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggle to gain traction.
“Already 14 people are known to have been killed as a result of the Russian attack, including 3 children. A horrific and deliberate killing of civilians,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes… It is crucial now that the world responds firmly. Russia must stop this war it started and continues. For the spurning of ceasefire and for the constant Russian attempts to weasel out of negotiations, new strong sanctions are needed. Only this can work. The Russians understand only strength and pressure.”
In addition to the deaths, officials said at least 38 people were wounded in the attack.
Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, making it one of the largest attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine’s forces shot down and neutralized all but 41 of the weapons, its Air Force said.
WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s defense minister said that a flying object that crashed and exploded in a cornfield in eastern Poland early Wednesday was identified as a Russian drone, calling it a provocation by Russia.
At a news conference in Warsaw, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz accused Russia of provoking NATO during a crucial moment, as peace talks over the war in neighboring Ukraine are underway, the country’s news agency PAP reported.
“Russia is provoking us once again,” Kosiniak-Kamysz said, just as peace talks have given hope that the war “has a chance of ending.”
Police said they received reports of the crash around 2 a.m. and found burned metal and plastic debris at the scene, near the village of Osiny. The blast broke windows in some nearby houses, but nobody was injured, PAP reported.
Zelensky says that the Druzhba (friendship) between Kiev and Budapest ‘will depend on Hungary’s actions’.
Orbán made it clear that Zelensky’s threats will not be forgiven or forgotten.
We have been reported how the repeated Ukrainian missile attacks on the Druzhba (meaning ‘friendship’) pipeline cut the flow of crude oil from Russia to both Hungary and Slovakia.
And what became an internet spat between the Hungarian and Ukrainian foreign ministers escalated now to a controversy between Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán.
‘IT’S VERY, VERY SERIOUS WHAT I HAVE IN MIND’: Despite being rebuffed at every turn, President Donald Trump is still holding out hope that Russia will come to the table to negotiate an end to the more than three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.
At a marathon broadcast Cabinet meeting that ran more than three hours, Trump indicated that despite his frustration, he’s ready to wage economic warfare against Russia to increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin. “It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it. But I want to see it end,” Trump said. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic. Because we’re not going to get into a world war.”
“Over the last couple of weeks, over 12,000 people died in, like, in two weeks,” Trump said. “They were Russian, they were Ukrainian, they weren’t American. So, a lot of people would say, ‘What do you care? They’re not American.’ I care. They’re 12,000.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that Canada will keep troops in Latvia through to 2029, as part of a mission to deter Russian aggression in Europe that has given Ottawa an outsized role in the transatlantic alliance.
“We must deter and fortify. And that is the way that we can provide true reassurance,” Carney said at a Tuesday news conference in Riga, flanked by Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina.
Carney’s office says there are now 2,000 Canadian Armed Forces troops in Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, which is Canada’s largest overseas mission. Canadian troops have been there since 2017 to strengthen the defence of Europe’s eastern flank and to deter Russian from invading Baltic countries, through what many call a “trip wire.”
Ukraine admitted for the first time on Tuesday that Russian forces had entered the central Dnipropetrovsk region, saying fighting there was ongoing. The battlefield monitor DeepState said in a social media post that the Russian army was “consolidating its positions” and preparing “for a further advance”.
Voter approval of President Donald Trump surged “upward” following his Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, likely giving him an advantage entering his peace meetings Monday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other world leaders.
InsiderAdvantage found in its three-day survey that 54% of voters approve of Trump while 44% don’t, a big swing up from where he was entering the Putin meeting.
Pollster Matt Towery said, “Overall, his approval numbers are surging upwards post-summit.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had a fiery exchange with a CBS reporter on Sunday, accusing her of pushing a “stupid media narrative” regarding Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting today with U.S. officials.
On yesterday’s “Face the Nation” broadcast, host Margaret Brennan claimed that European leaders were joining Zelenskyy as backup to protect him from being “bullied into signing something away.”
Rubio pushed back hard, telling Brennan, “That is not true. But that’s not true, they’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied.”
