Zelenskyy urges Trump topressure Russia and broker peace in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz that he sees Donald Trump as a key figure who can end the war between his nation and Vladimir Putin's Russia. In an interview that aired Sunday, the Ukrainian President noted that 'the majority of wars were finished with some kinds of agreements … [with] strong third parties involved who can put pressure on the aggressor,' Zelenskyy told Raddatz.
'Are there enough levers and powers to stop this in the United States? Yes, I am convinced that the president of the United States has all the powers and enough leverage to step up,' Zelenskyy continued. 'He can unite around him other partners like European leaders,' he concluded. 'They [are] all looking at the President Trump as a leader of the free world, a free, democratic world, and they are waiting for him,' Zelenskyy added.
The Ukrainian President also called for America to pressure Russia via economic sanctions, noting that only the United States can actually make a difference. 'It doesn't matter who wants, apart from the United States, to apply sanctions against Russia,' Zelenskyy stated. 'If it's not the United States, there will be no real impact.'
Some Washington, DC Republicans agree with the Ukrainian President's calls to be tougher on Russia. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Emeritus, Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told Shannon Bream in a FOX News Sunday interview that he believes his House colleagues would support a bill by Senator Lindsey Graham to put extreme pressure on Russia.
'So, you have to put pressure. How do you do that? Secondary sanctions. Lindsey Graham has a bill. If he passes it tomorrow, we'll pass it in the House,' McCaul said. 'And secondly, keep the flow of weapons going into Ukraine to pressure Mr. Putin to act in good faith. I have little confidence in him,' McCaul added.
Graham's bill would place a 500% tariff on any nation that purchases Russian oil, uranium, and petroleum products. The legislation presently has the support of a bipartisan group of 82 members of the United States Senate. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is one of the cosponsors of Graham's bill, but is at the same time no fan of Zelenskyy's.
Tuberville (pictured( told WABC 770 AM host John Catsimatidis in a Sunday morning interview that he views Zelenskyy as 'dictator'. 'He knows that if he had an election he'd get voted out … Back during World War II, we had elections. You can't stop your constitution just because there's a war going on. That's when you really need to look into your constitution. Zelenskyy is a dictator, and he has created all sorts of problems,' Tuberville stated.
'We've got a lot of money that's been missing. No telling where it's gone … It's way out of control. But the Biden administration allowed it to happen. It really escalated the last couple of years. My God! It would be like our Vietnam War. But it's probably three or four times worse than the Vietnam war, because we only lost 50,000. I think both of these [nations] have lost close to 500,000 to 700,000 people. It's devastating to the world,' Senator Tuberville added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
EU seeks to lower a price cap on Russian oil and discourage Nord Stream pipeline investors
The European Union wants to lower a cap on the price of Russian oil to deprive the Kremlin of extra profits to fund its war in Ukraine as part of a new raft of sanctions aimed at forcing Moscow to the negotiating table, senior officials said on Tuesday. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc is 'proposing to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45, which is lower than the market price, and lowering the oil price cap will hit Russia's revenues hard.' Kallas said the EU also wants to impose 'sanctions on the Nord Stream pipelines to prevent Russia generating any revenue in the future. In this way, it sends a clear signal we are not going back to business as usual.' All 27 EU member countries must all agree for the sanctions to enter force. In 2023, Ukraine's Western allies limited sales of Russian oil to $60 per barrel but the price cap was largely symbolic as most of Moscow's crude — its main moneymaker — cost less than that. Still, the cap was there in case oil prices rose. Oil income is the linchpin of Russia's economy, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces while avoiding worsening inflation for everyday people and a currency collapse. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she assumed that the price cap would be discussed and agreed among the leaders of the Group of Seven major world economic powers when they meet in Canada on June 15-17. She said the United States and its G7 partners realize 'that the oil price has lowered so much that the effectiveness of the cap is to be questioned, and therefore we all want to lower the oil price from $60 per barrel down to $45 per barrel.' The Nord Stream gas pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation. They were sabotaged in 2022, but the source of the underwater explosions has remained a major international mystery. The Commission has said that it wants to impose sanctions on the operating consortium to discourage investors from trying to use the pipelines in future. The blasts happened as Europe attempted to wean itself off Russian energy sources following the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and contributed to tensions that followed the start of the war. Von der Leyen noted on Tuesday that at the beginning of the war in 2022, 'Russia had 12 billion euros ($14 billion) of energy revenues from fossil fuels" from Europe per month. "And now we're down to 1.8 billion (euros).' The new EU sanctions would also target Russia's banking sector, with the aim of limiting the Kremlin's ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. A further 22 Russian banks will be hit with measures, von der Leyen said. An export ban worth some 2.5 billion euros would also be imposed, and the assets frozen of more than 20 Russian and foreign companies alleged to be providing support to the Kremlin's war machine. Von der Leyen said the sanctions are aimed at forcing Russia into serious talks about peace with Ukraine. 'We need a real ceasefire, and Russia has to come to the negotiating table with a serious proposal,' she told reporters. The EU has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Around 2,400 officials and 'entities' – often government agencies, banks and organizations – have been hit. It's last raft of sanctions, imposed on May 20, targeted almost 200 ships in Russia's sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers, and tightened trade restrictions to stop produce that could be used for military purposes from reaching Russia's armed forces.
BBC News
23 minutes ago
- BBC News
Family visa income threshold should be lower, review says
The minimum income threshold for family visas should be relaxed, a government-commissioned review has recommended.A report by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has suggested a reduction from the current level of £29, warned against previous proposals to raise the threshold to the same level as for skilled workers - £38,700 a year - saying it could breach the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).The Conservatives said that the UK should leave the ECHR if it "stops us from setting our own visa rules". Article 8 of the ECHR enshrines the right to family threshold is the minimum income a British citizen or settled resident must earn to bring their partner to join them in the UK. If the partner is already in the UK on a valid visa, their income also counts towards the minimum applications are made by people not already living in the UK. The MAC suggested a range of possible new thresholds. It said a level between £23,000 to £25,000 would enable families to support themselves.A threshold of between £24,000 to £28,000 meanwhile would put more emphasis on economic wellbeing - both of the families themselves and for said it did "not understand the rationale" for setting the family visa threshold at the £38,700 level for skilled workers, as the two visas have "completely different objective[s]".A £38,700 level would be the "most likely to conflict with international law and obligations".It is the government's decision whether to accept any of the MAC's recommendations. Prof Brian Bell, chairman of the MAC, said that balancing family life and economic wellbeing was a "real trade-off"."There is a cost to the UK economy and UK taxpayers of having this route, and we should just be honest about that and say there is a trade-off," he said."But similarly, on the other side, people who say 'we should set it at very high numbers to make sure that we don't lose any money' ignore the massive impact that has on families and the destruction of some relationships and the harm it causes to children." A higher threshold would also have a "negative impact on the family life of a larger number of people", the MAC said. It noted many families with lower incomes still earn enough to support themselves even if they do not make a net positive fiscal impact on the said an adult would need to earn £27,800 to have a neutral impact on the public finances - and £40,400 for a couple to have no impact in the first year a spouse arrived in the MAC did not recommend a higher threshold for families with children, saying the impacts on family life for them would be "particularly significant". In 2023 the previous Conservative government announced plans to raise the salary threshold to £38,700, as part of plans to cut the level of they backed down following criticism that this would keep families apart, settling on a £29,000 threshold with plans to gradually increase it did not implement those further rises when the party came into government and asked the MAC to review the committee said the threshold of £29,000 was already high compared to other high-income countries it had looked at. The MAC said it "was not possible to predict with any confidence" the impact different thresholds would have on the level of net migration - the difference between those entering and leaving the did suggest lowering the threshold from £29,000 to roughly £24,000 may increase net migration by up to 8,000 migration in 2024 was an estimated 431,000 people, down almost 50% on the previous followed record high levels in recent years, with the government under political pressure to get numbers down further. The MAC also criticised the Home Office for its data collection, saying insufficient data "greatly hindered" their review.A Home Office spokesperson said the government was considering the review's findings and would respond in due course. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said migration figures remain too high and that the government "must urgently re-instate the Conservative plan to further increase the salary threshold"."If the ECHR stops us from setting our own visa rules, from deporting foreign criminals or from putting Britain's interests first, then we should leave the ECHR," he ECHR, which was established in 1950, sets out the rights and freedoms people are entitled to in the 46 signatory countries and is a central part of UK human rights month, the government said it would bring forward legislation to clarify how aspects of the ECHR should apply in immigration cases.
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Vance slams Newsom over LA ICE riots
By Published: | Updated: Vice President JD Vance ridiculed California Governor Gavin Newsom, as he struggled to handle violent protests in California in response to ICE deportations. The social media duel between the two ambitious politicians was a messaging preview if the two leaders ultimately one day face each other in the upcoming 2028 presidential election. Trump told reporters he even supported the idea of his immigration czar Tom Homan arresting Newsom for doing a 'terrible job' as governor as he returned to the White House from Camp David. Newsom reacted on social media, expressing shock at Trump's comments. 'The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,' Newsom wrote. 'This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.' 'Do your job. That's all we're asking,' Vance replied on X. Newsom appears eager to take his political career to a national level after he is prevented from running again for governor in 2026, thanks to term limits. Vance, who many expect to be the heir to the MAGA movement remained widely supportive of President Trump's action to send the military to help quell the riots.
