The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia was continuing its dialogue with the United States amid threats by President Donald Trump to levy secondary sanctions on Russian oil if Moscow does not work to end the war in Ukraine. Trump, who said this week he was “pissed off” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Monday he wanted to see the Kremlin leader make a deal to stop the full-scale conflict, now in its fourth year.
“I want to see him make a deal so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will.”
A day earlier, Trump had told NBC News he was very angry after Putin last week criticised the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership and would consider putting secondary sanctions on Russian oil if he felt Moscow was blocking a peace deal with Ukraine.
Asked about Trump’s latest remarks about wanting Putin to do a deal on Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday:
“We are continuing our contacts with the American side. The subject is very complex. The substance that we are discussing, related to the Ukrainian settlement, is very complex. This requires a lot of extra effort.”
Before the weekend, Trump had adopted a more conciliatory stance towards Russia that had left Western allies wary as he tried to broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Publicly, Russia has so far responded cautiously to Trump’s overtures, agreeing to pause its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure if Kyiv does the same. Both sides accuse each other of violating the moratorium.
Citing a number of conditions it feels need to be met first,
Moscow has so far refused to sign up to a wider ceasefire of the kind that Trump wants.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Andrew Osborn)