Trump threatens Russia with sanctions until Ukraine peace reached

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 US paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Ten people, including a child, were injured, Ukrainian officials said.

CALL FOR TRUCE

President Volodymyr Zelensky, seeking to shore up Western support for Ukraine after the apparent US 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,” Zelensky 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 US and partners after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

US 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 US 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, Zelensky 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 US 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.