Russia says no peacekeepers in Ukraine under any conditions as Trump reups threat of devastating sanctions
WASHINGTON — The Russian government issued its strongest statement yet Wednesday against a provisional cease-fire agreed by the US and Ukraine a day earlier following marathon talks in Saudi Arabia.“Nobody is talking to us,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with pro-Kremlin US bloggers.“They keep saying, ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,’ but they do everything about Russia without Russia.”Lavrov also added that Russia would not accept peacekeeping troops from any NATO country on Ukrainian territory “under any conditions,” a direct rebuke to a proposal floated by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.Russian President Vladimir Putin also appeared in a Kremlin-produced video released Wednesday dressed in military camouflage — a rare occurrence — and vowing to regain all of the Kursk province held for seven months by Ukrainian forces.
During his remarks, Putin ominously added that any Ukrainians found on Russian land will be treated like “terrorists.”A US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed with their Ukrainian counterparts Tuesday to establish a 30-day ceasefire if Russia signed onto the deal — which Moscow has shown no inclination of doing.The American team met last month with Russian officials, also in Saudi Arabia, to discuss a framework for warming bilateral relations and eventually talking about a peace deal with Ukraine.In Washington, President Trump reiterated his threat to sanction Moscow if it did not agree to parley about Ukraine, saying he could unload “devastating” financial sanctions in response to Russian noncompliance.“There are things that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense.I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia.
I don’t want to do it that because I want to get peace,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during his bilateral meeting alongside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin“In a financial sense, ...