Kremlin vows to ‘increase force' of attacks on Ukraine despite EU sanctions
In a post on his official Telegram channel, Mr Medvedev said the new sanctions would do little to alter Russia's stance on the conflict, just as previous rounds of sanctions had failed to make an impact.
Mr Medvedev, who has emerged as one of the Kremlin's top hawks, said Russia planned to intensify its strikes on Ukraine. 'Strikes against targets in so-called Ukraine, including Kyiv, will be carried out with increasing force', Mr Medvedev said.
US president Donald Trump announced a toughened stance against Russia on Monday, promising a fresh wave of missiles and other weaponry, including Patriot missile defence systems capable of destroying Russian ballistic missiles.
He also gave Russia 50 days to sign up to a ceasefire or face new sanctions.
The EU yesterday agreed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia, including measures aimed at dealing further blows to the Russian oil and energy industry.
The bloc will set a moving price cap on Russian crude oil at 15pc below its average market price, EU diplomats said.
This aims to improve on a largely ineffective $60 (€52) per barrel cap that the G7 economies have tried to impose since December 2022.
'The EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date,' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X.
'We will keep raising the costs, so stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow.'
The UK also announced it would join the price cap move, saying it would deal a blow to Moscow's oil revenues used to finance the ongoing conflict.
Earlier yesterday, Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin did not believe that the tougher stance Mr Trump has adopted towards Russia means the end of US-Russia talks aimed at improving the relationship between the two countries.
Asked if Mr Trump's statements meant that negotiations aimed at reviving battered ties between Moscow and Washington would now end, Mr Peskov said: 'We assume that this is not what it means. Of course, these are different issues. One issue is the question of the Ukrainian [peace] settlement. The other issue is our bilateral relations.'
Mr Peskov said many 'irritants' and problems still needed to be resolved in order to improve ties with Washington, which he said were 'in a deplorable state'. He called efforts to change the situation time-consuming and difficult.
Moscow's dialogue with Washington appeared to improve after Mr Trump retook office in January, but Mr Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Vladimir Putin over conditions the Russian president has attached to any potential ceasefire.
Russia and Ukraine held two rounds of peace talks in Turkey earlier this year, which yielded an agreement to exchange prisoners and soldiers' remains.
But no date has yet been set for a third round of talks, and the warring sides remain far apart on the terms of any ceasefire or eventual peace settlement.
Ms Svyrydenko negotiated a high-level deal offering the US preferential access to Ukraine's mineral wealth
Ukraine and the US, meanwhile, have been holding detailed talks on a deal involving US investment in Kyiv's domestic drone production, new Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said yesterday.
Her announcement came a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked a new, reshuffled government with scaling up Ukraine's arms industry and strengthening ties with its strategic partners.
Ms Svyrydenko, speaking alongside several other new ministers in Kyiv, said the deal would also lead to the US – Ukraine's biggest military backer – purchasing Ukrainian drones.
'We plan to sign a drone deal with the United States. We are discussing investments in the expansion of production of Ukrainian drones by the US,' she said. 'That is, we are talking about the purchase of a large batch of Ukrainian drones.'
Ms Svyrydenko added that a political decision on the deal had been made by Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump, and that officials were hashing out the details.
Mr Zelensky told the New York Post this week that he and Mr Trump were considering a deal for Washington to buy battlefield-tested Ukrainian drones in exchange for Kyiv purchasing weapons from the US.
The Ukrainian government under Ms Svyrydenko is expected to shore up ties with the Trump administration.
Ms Svyrydenko is well-known in Washington, having negotiated a high-level deal offering the US preferential access to Ukraine's mineral wealth. The deal will feed a reconstruction fund.
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RTÉ News
11 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
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Irish Times
41 minutes ago
- Irish Times
How the EU succumbed to Trump's tariff steamroller
The path to the EU's capitulation to Donald Trump's trade blitz was set on April 10th. The sweeping 'liberation day' tariffs that the US president had inflicted on most of the world earlier that month had sent financial markets into a tailspin as investors dumped US assets over recession fears. With the sell-off intensifying, Trump blinked and on April 9th dropped the tariffs to 10 per cent. But Brussels blinked too. On April 10th it suspended its retaliatory tariffs and accepted the US offer of talks with a knife at its throat: 10 per cent tariffs on most of its trade, along with higher levies on steel, aluminium and vehicles. Rather than join Canada and China with instant retaliation and inflict pain on US consumers and businesses, the EU – hamstrung by divergent views among its member states – chose to take the pain in the hope of securing a better deal. 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Irish Times
42 minutes ago
- Irish Times
EU-US tariffs deal dominates news front pages
The front pages of European and US newspapers are this morning dominated by the deal reached between the EU and United States on tariffs on Sunday. The two blocs have agreed a deal that will lock in tariffs of 15 per cent on most EU imports to the US, but prevent the prospect of an economically devastating trade war. The final terms of the deal were worked out during a meeting between European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and US president Donald Trump at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. The headline on the front page of the New York Times states: 'US and Europe find agreement on a 15 per cent tariff'. READ MORE 'Altogether, while it was clear that major details still needed to be hammered out, the framework seemed likely to permanently reshape the trading relationship between two of the world's largest and most interconnected economies,' the front page piece says. The Washington Post's lead story explains how both leaders 'sought to paint the accord as the 'biggest deal ever made' but it was unclear if they were on the same page about how steel and other critical products would be affected'. The New York Post features a large picture of EU president von der Leyen and US president Trump shaking hands with the headline 'EU got a deal!'. The picture of the two leaders shaking hands dominates the front of the Financial Times also, with its headline 'Brussels accepts 15 per cent US tariffs to fix 'unfair' trade relations, says Trump'. Spanish newspaper El País leads with the headline 'The European Union gives in to Trump and accepts tariffs of 15 per cent'. French newspaper Le Figaro goes with: 'Europe reaches agreement with Trump at the last minute'. Belgian newspaper De Morgen states that 'an all-out trade war between the EU and the US has been averted'. The Times UK and Scotsman focus instead on Mr Trump's meeting with UK prime Keir Starmer later on Monday. 'Starmer to press Trump on Gaza', the front page of the Times states, while the Scotsman says 'Starmer heads to Turnberry talks as Trump holds court'. Back home, the deal features across the front pages of The Irish Times, the Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner and the Irish Daily Mail. The Irish Sun's front page is taken up with a picture of Ms von der Leyen and Mr Trump shaking hands with the headline 'Putt it there!' accompanied by a smaller image of Mr Trump golfing on Sunday.
