Russia suggests Trump is emboldening Ukraine, delaying peace
The Kremlin warned Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's pledge of more weapons for Kyiv and threat of sanctions targeting Russian trading partners could embolden Ukraine and further delay already stalled peace efforts.
Trump a day earlier gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, voicing fresh frustration with Moscow as he laid out an arrangement with NATO to supply Kyiv with new military aid sponsored by the alliance's members.
Kremlin calls Trump's threats a boost to continued war
The Republican forced Moscow and Kyiv to open peace talks to end the conflict, now in its fourth year, but Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine in recent months.
Moscow said it needed more time to respond fully to Trump's statement, but hinted it did not appear conducive to successful negotiations.
'It seems that such a decision made in Washington and in NATO countries and directly in Brussels will be perceived by Kyiv not as a signal for peace but for the continuation of the war,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
'President Trump's statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington,' he told reporters in Moscow's first reaction to the comments.
Trump warned that if no deal was concluded, he would slap severe tariffs on Russia's remaining trade partners in a bid to impede Moscow's ability to finance its military offensive.
Pumped up by huge state spending on soldiers and weapons, as well as by redirecting vital energy exports to the likes of China and India, Russia's economy has so far defied Western hopes sanctions would push it into a deep recession.
Weapons deal
Two rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine, held in Turkey in recent months, have made no progress towards ending the fighting and yielded only large-scale prisoner exchanges.
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its offensive, with millions forced to flee their homes in eastern and southern Ukraine, which has been decimated by aerial attacks and ground assaults.
Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire and his negotiators have demanded Ukraine shun all Western military support, and pull out of four regions in its east and south that Moscow claims to have annexed.
Kyiv and the West have rejected them as a call for Ukraine's de-facto capitulation.
Peskov said Russia was open to another round of talks and was 'waiting for proposals from the Ukrainian side on the timing.'
ALSO READ: Zelensky signs decree for Ukraine's withdrawal from anti-landmine treaty
Kyiv has called it 'pointless' to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation.
European nations weigh role in US-led weapons plan
Denmark and the Netherlands on Tuesday said they were looking to participate in Trump's plan for Europe to buy American weapons for Ukraine.
Under the scheme, some of NATO's European members would pay Washington for the weapons, including vital Patriot air defence systems, which would then be shipped to Ukraine.
The United States has been Kyiv's most important military backer since Russia launched its offensive in 2022, but Trump's erratic policy on whether to support Ukraine and his attempts to engage Putin have spooked Europe and Kyiv.
'Game of chess'
In Moscow, residents dismissed Trump's statement as little more than politics.
'It's a game of chess,' Svetlana, an aviation engineer said.
'There will still be negotiations… (Trump) gave 50 days, and then there will be more… We are waiting for the next move of our president,' the 47-year-old said.
Russia has pummelled Ukrainian cities with regular aerial attacks in recent weeks as its troops advance slowly across the battlefield in the east and south.
Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the east were hopeful but cautious following Trump's promise of air defences and weapons.
'I don't believe him. There have been too many promises that haven't been kept,' said one soldier with the call-sign 'Shah.'
Others were worried it might be too little too late.
'Of course it's good, but at the same time, time has been lost. Those Patriots could have been sent sooner and could have helped a lot,' another fighter called 'Master' told AFP.
'If there is even the slightest chance to improve the situation for us and worsen it for them, then that's already positive,' Ruslan, a 29-year-old soldier, said.
NOW READ: Anton Kobyakov: The quiet power behind Putin's Russia
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The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
South Africa Is No Longer Alone on the International Stage
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Daily Maverick
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Road ahead is steep but not insurmountable– SA's G20 can still deliver for debt and development
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Therefore, African countries may be forced to resort to international capital markets to fill the gap in their development financing needs. The financing these markets offer is expensive, involves exchange rate risks and is pro-cyclical. In addition, evidence suggests that African countries are charged much higher interest rates than countries in other regions with comparable credit ratings. The resulting 'African premium' costs African countries $74.5-billion per year in excess interest payments, according to a UNDP report. The reasons for this premium are still up for debate. It has been attributed to credit rating bias, lack of quality data, a lack of sound fiscal and public finance management by African governments, and to the fact that many African countries are new to international markets, having only started issuing international bonds between 2007 and 2020. Meanwhile, as African countries continue to deal with these tough conditions on the international capital markets, efforts to address their existing debt burden remain painfully slow. The current approach to sovereign debt restructuring uses the common framework developed by the G20 to deal with the obligations to all official and commercial creditors of low-income countries. Unfortunately, this framework has failed to deliver adequate outcomes for African countries. South Africa's G20 presidency provides the next opportunity to address this challenge. As South Africa commences the last half of its G20 Presidency, we suggest that it prioritise the following issues on the development finance agenda: South Africa must champion the Borrowers' Forum This forum, promoted in the outcome document from FfD4, would facilitate the exchange of ideas, information and peer learning among sovereign borrowers. If supported by a permanent secretariat, as proposed in the Report of the UNSG's Expert Group on Debt, the forum could become the repository of information about sovereign borrowing and the source of technical support and capacity building for debtor countries. South Africa should advocate for the G20 to actively support the creation of the forum as soon as possible. It should also work with the African Union and African G20 guest countries to take the first actions to operationalise a regional borrowers forum in Africa. Improving sovereign debt architecture South Africa, as co-chair of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable (GSDR), must use it as a tool to promote the improvement of the sovereign debt architecture. The FfD4 Compromiso calls for the creation of a working group to propose a set of principles for responsible sovereign borrowing and lending that can make sovereign debt transactions and the international debt architecture more effective, efficient and more supportive of optimal development outcomes. The GSDR was established as an informal G20-linked forum, chaired by the G20 presidency, the IMF and the World Bank. It brings together a diverse array of creditors, debtors and other stakeholders to discuss how to make the sovereign debt process work better for all stakeholders. South Africa should convene a meeting of the GSDR to begin discussing the framework for promoting responsible sovereign borrowing and lending, including the planning and management of such transactions and their outcomes. Panel of technical experts South Africa must advocate for the G20 to appoint a panel of technical experts to study the barriers to affordable, adequate and predictable flows of development finance to African sovereigns and make recommendations on what the G20 can do to remedy this situation. This can complement the work of the African Experts Panel, which has a broader mandate of 'exploring and defining strategies that advance Africa's collective developmental interests'. South Africa's G20 presidency should not be the end of this year's advocacy for a new and more developmentally responsible debt architecture. These actions should also be promoted at the World Social Summit and the COP30 in Brazil. DM Daniel D Bradlow is a part-time G20 Senior Fellow at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), where his research focuses on the finance track of the G20 and related Think20 issues.
