US President Donald Trump has said his decision to suspend several Russian sanctions is an effort to keep Moscow at the negotiating table.
“I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said on his Truth Social messaging platform, adding that he didn’t want to “do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table”.
Trump blocked numerous sanctions on Russia two days before they were due to take effect, as a row with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deepened.
Zelensky told NBC News on Sunday that siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin would be a “historic mistake”.
Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev has responded to Trump’s order by calling it “an important and truly historic moment”, and saying the sanctions would have inflicted “serious damage” on the US and global market.
Trump also claimed in his Truth Social post that Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did”, adding “he could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now”.
Zelensky has pushed for an end to fighting, and has repeatedly said that Putin doesn’t want peace, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Relations between Washington and Kyiv frayed after the US struck a controversial deal to import Russian diesel last week. Ukraine has accused the Trump administration of withdrawing key military support.
Since then, Zelensky declared it was nice to be among “real leaders” while addressing a European Union summit, after Trump said Zelensky was “more difficult to deal with” than Putin.
