U.S. President Donald Trump raised the prospect of imposing large-scale U.S. sanctions on Russia on Friday, days after pausing military aid and intelligence support to Ukraine, and he called on both countries to get on with negotiating a peace deal.
Trump's threat of banking curbs and tariffs followed a Reuters report on Monday that the White House was preparing to give Russia possible sanctions relief as part of the push to end the war and improve diplomatic and economic ties with Moscow.
"Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED," Trump said on his social media platform.
"To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!"
Russian forces have almost surrounded thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia's Kursk region last summer in a shock incursion which Kyiv had hoped to use as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks.
But the president, who has drawn the U.S. closer to Moscow while heaping criticism on Kyiv since coming into office in January, offered a more conciliatory view of President Vladimir Putin in comments later in the day, saying he believed the Russian leader wanted peace.
"I think he wants to get it stopped and settled and I think he's hitting them harder than -- than he's been hitting them. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now," Trump said of Putin's military onslaught.
"I'm finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine," Trump said.
Ukraine's position in Kursk has deteriorated sharply in the last three days, open source maps show. The Russian counteroffensive has nearly cut the Ukrainian force in two and separated the main group from its principal supply lines.
"The situation (for Ukraine in Kursk) is very bad," Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group, told Reuters.
Russian forces also damaged energy and gas infrastructure inside Ukraine overnight in their first major missile attack since the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
Ten people, including a child, were injured, Ukrainian officials said.
Call For Truce
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, seeking to shore up Western support for Ukraine after the apparent U.S. diplomatic pivot towards Moscow, responded to the attack by calling for a truce covering air and sea.
"The first steps to establishing real peace should be forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, and said it would never let peacekeepers from NATO countries into Ukraine, after the two countries suggested a European force could police any permanent settlement.
Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, is already subject to wide-ranging sanctions imposed by the United States and partners after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
U.S. sanctions on Russia include measures aimed at limiting its oil and gas revenues, including a cap of $60 per barrel on Russia's oil exports.
The U.S. government is studying ways it could ease sanctions on Russia's energy sector if Moscow agrees to end the Ukraine war, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Trump did not go into detail on the possible sanctions against Russia.
Despite tension with Trump, Zelenskiy said late on Thursday he would travel to Saudi Arabia next Monday for a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman before talks there later in the week between U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has already held extensive talks with Russian officials. He said he was in discussions with Ukraine for a peace agreement framework to end the three-year-old war and confirmed that a meeting was planned next week with the Ukrainians in Saudi Arabia.
Russia holds around a fifth of Ukraine's territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, and its forces are steadily advancing in the eastern Donetsk region.
Kyiv has been pressing for robust security guarantees for any peace deal but the U.S. has declined to commit, pointing to a potential critical minerals agreement that Trump says would be enough. Zelenskiy has yet to sign the minerals agreement and clashed with Trump publicly a week ago.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be at the talks with the Ukrainians in Saudi Arabia, and that he thought they would get things back on track.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had a "constructive call" with Rubio on Friday. – March 8, 2025
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