Latest news with #CarnegieRussiaEurasiaCentre
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- NZ Herald
After almost losing Trump, Putin shifts tack and gets his ideal summit
But Trump's deadline for Putin to end the war was swiftly approaching, presaging some sort of further rift between the White House and the Kremlin. So Putin shifted tack ever so slightly. Despite previous refusals by Russian officials to negotiate over territory in the Russia-Ukraine war, the Russian leader, during a meeting at the Kremlin last week, left Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, with the impression that Russia was now willing to engage in some deal-making on the question of land. 'We're going to get some back, and we're going to get some switched,' Trump said on Friday. 'There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.' By speaking a language Trump understands — the language of real estate — Putin secured something he had been seeking ever since January: a one-on-one meeting with the US leader, without Zelenskyy present, to make his case and cut a deal. 'It has been a very good week for Putin,' said Sam Greene, a professor of Russian politics at Kings College London. 'He has taken himself out of a position of significant vulnerability. 'He has manoeuvred this entire process into something that is more or less exactly what he needed it to be.' At the same time, tensions between Washington and Kyiv have reappeared. Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian Constitution does not allow his Government to negotiate away the country's land. Trump initially told European officials that the meeting with Putin would be followed by a three-way summit with both Putin and Zelenskyy. The Kremlin quickly said no such promise had been made. The White House proceeded anyway. Few analysts believe the Russian leader will be content to stop the war based on a real estate negotiation alone. Putin has made it clear that, among other things, he wants a formal promise that Ukraine will not enter Nato or any other Western military alliances, host Western troops on its territory or be allowed to build up a military that threatens Russia — making Ukraine perpetually vulnerable. 'The fundamental thing for Russia is domination,' Greene said. Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin, said Putin would come into the summit in Alaska pursuing various scenarios. Those include a favourable deal with Trump that the US President successfully forces upon Ukraine or a favourable deal with Trump that Zelenskyy refuses, causing the US to walk away from Ukraine, Gabuev said. The third option, he noted, is that the Russian leader continues his current path for another 12 to 18 months, with the expectation that Ukraine will run out of soldiers faster than the Russian war economy runs out of steam. Putin understands that Trump is willing to offer things few other American leaders would ever consider, which could help Russia fracture Ukraine and divide the Western alliance. 'If you could get Trump to recognise Russia's claim to the lion's share of the territory that it has taken, understanding that the Ukrainians and the Europeans might not come along for the ride on that, you drive a long-term wedge between the US and Europe,' Greene said. Despite wanting those things, Putin won't stop the war for them, if getting them means agreeing to a sovereign Ukraine with a strong military, aligned with the West, that is able to make its own arms, Gabuev said. 'Trump is a big opportunity for him,' Gabuev said. 'I think that he understands that. But at the same time, he is not ready to pay the price of Ukraine slipping away forever.' Stefan Meister, a Russia analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said the two leaders would come into the summit with different goals — Trump's being to end the war and Putin's being a strategic repositioning of Russia. 'For Putin, it's really about bigger goals,' Meister added. 'It is about his legacy. It is about where Russia will stand after this war. It is much more fundamental. This creates a different willingness to pay costs.' And despite negotiations about his country's land, Zelenskyy will not be in the room. 'For Ukraine, it is a disaster,' Meister said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Paul Sonne ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Advertiser
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Ukraine rejects land forfeit ahead of Trump-Putin talks
Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted, rejecting US suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Ukraine's borders were fixed in the country's constitution. "No one will deviate from this." US Vice President JD Vance will meet Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace, Downing Street said, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had spoken about it with Zelenskiy. "They agreed this would be a vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace," the Downing Street spokesperson added. Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as having achieved "great progress". "Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after his call with Starmer. "We value the determination of the United Kingdom, the United States, and all our partners to end the war." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that it still controls. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region, a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1000-kilometre front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers. Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted, rejecting US suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Ukraine's borders were fixed in the country's constitution. "No one will deviate from this." US Vice President JD Vance will meet Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace, Downing Street said, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had spoken about it with Zelenskiy. "They agreed this would be a vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace," the Downing Street spokesperson added. Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as having achieved "great progress". "Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after his call with Starmer. "We value the determination of the United Kingdom, the United States, and all our partners to end the war." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that it still controls. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region, a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1000-kilometre front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers. Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted, rejecting US suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Ukraine's borders were fixed in the country's constitution. "No one will deviate from this." US Vice President JD Vance will meet Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace, Downing Street said, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had spoken about it with Zelenskiy. "They agreed this would be a vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace," the Downing Street spokesperson added. Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as having achieved "great progress". "Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after his call with Starmer. "We value the determination of the United Kingdom, the United States, and all our partners to end the war." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that it still controls. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region, a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1000-kilometre front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers. Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted, rejecting US suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Ukraine's borders were fixed in the country's constitution. "No one will deviate from this." US Vice President JD Vance will meet Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace, Downing Street said, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had spoken about it with Zelenskiy. "They agreed this would be a vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace," the Downing Street spokesperson added. Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as having achieved "great progress". "Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after his call with Starmer. "We value the determination of the United Kingdom, the United States, and all our partners to end the war." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that it still controls. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region, a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1000-kilometre front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Politics
- Perth Now
Ukraine rejects land forfeit ahead of Trump-Putin talks
Ukraine will not cede its land, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has insisted, rejecting US suggestions that a deal with Russia could involve swapping territories as Washington and Moscow prepared for talks between their leaders on ending the war. US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska on August 15, saying the parties, including Zelenskiy, were close to a deal that could resolve the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Details of the potential deal have yet to be announced, but Trump said it would involve "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both". It could require Ukraine to surrender significant parts of its territory - an outcome Kyiv and its European allies say would only encourage Russian aggression. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier," Zelenskiy said in a video address, adding that Ukraine's borders were fixed in the country's constitution. "No one will deviate from this." US Vice President JD Vance will meet Ukrainian and European allies in Britain on Saturday to discuss Trump's push for peace, Downing Street said, adding that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had spoken about it with Zelenskiy. "They agreed this would be a vital forum to discuss progress towards securing a just and lasting peace," the Downing Street spokesperson added. Zelenskiy has made a flurry of calls with Ukraine's allies since Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow on Wednesday, which Trump described as having achieved "great progress". "Clear steps are needed, as well as maximum coordination between us and our partners," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after his call with Starmer. "We value the determination of the United Kingdom, the United States, and all our partners to end the war." Ukraine and the European Union have pushed back on proposals that they view as ceding too much to Putin, whose troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, citing what Moscow called threats to Russia's security from a Ukrainian pivot towards the West. Kyiv and its Western allies say the invasion is an imperial-style land grab. Moscow has previously claimed four Ukrainian regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – as well as the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. Russian forces do not fully control all the territory in the four regions. Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out its troops from the parts of all four of them that it still controls. Ukraine says its troops still have a small foothold in Russia's Kursk region, a year after its troops crossed the border to try to gain leverage in any negotiations. Russia said it had expelled Ukrainian troops from Kursk in April. Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, described the current peace push as "the first more or less realistic attempt to stop the war". "At the same time, I remain extremely sceptical about the implementation of the agreements, even if a truce is reached for a while. And there is virtually no doubt that the new commitments could be devastating for Ukraine," she said. Fierce fighting is raging along the more than 1000-kilometre front line along eastern and southern Ukraine, where Russian forces hold around a fifth of the country's territory. Russian troops are slowly advancing in Ukraine's east, but their summer offensive has so far failed to achieve a major breakthrough, Ukrainian military analysts say. "Not a single serviceman will agree to cede territory, to pull out troops from Ukrainian territories," Olesia Petritska, 51, told Reuters as she gestured to hundreds of small Ukrainian flags in the Kyiv central square commemorating fallen soldiers.
Straits Times
17-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Russia isn't sounding rattled by Trump's ultimatum on Ukraine
People close to the Kremlin say Mr Vladimir Putin believes he is winning and sees no reason to stop without major Ukrainian concessions. Russia appears unrattled by President Donald Trump's new ultimatum aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, retreating to a long-held position that it will weather any sanctions and continue pursuing its war goals in Ukraine regardless of outside pressure. Russian commentators have also questioned whether Mr Trump has really reversed course and is fully committed to supporting Ukraine. Mr Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum for Moscow to come to a peace deal, before implementing penalties drafted by the US Congress on Russia and its trading partners. He also agreed to supply weapons to Ukraine, to be paid for by Europe. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called Mr Trump's remarks 'very serious' on July 15 and something that would concern President Vladimir Putin. But he said Moscow would need time to analyse the position. On July 16, Mr Peskov said he hoped the United States was still pressuring Ukraine to continue peace talks. Ukraine and many Western analysts say Russia has sought to string Mr Trump along by holding talks without a real readiness to make a deal. 'Many statements have been made,' Mr Peskov said. 'Many words about disappointment.' Ukraine, he added, was reading Washington's support 'as a signal to continue the war'. On state television, Russian commentators expressed doubt about Mr Trump's plans, saying the weapons he promised were unlikely to change the battlefield reality. Some also suggested Mr Trump would be unable to penalise buyers of Russian oil without sharply increasing global oil prices, to the detriment of the United States and its Western allies. 'I don't think the Russians are overly impressed,' said Mr Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin, adding: 'There is still more bark than bite.' Mr Gabuev said the Kremlin's calculus remained unchanged: Moscow believes that with Ukraine losing territory and struggling to find enough troops and Western support, time is on Russia's side. Moscow is still seeking Ukraine's capitulation to a broad range of demands, including that it cede more territory, cap the future size of its military and stay out of military alliances. People close to the Kremlin say Mr Putin believes he is winning and sees no reason to stop without major Ukrainian concessions. Mr Putin has not yet spoken publicly about Mr Trump's new stance. Moscow wants to understand what is behind Mr Trump's threat to impose 'very severe' tariffs within 50 days, Russia's foreign minister, Mr Sergey Lavrov, said on July 15. Mr Lavrov mentioned other time frames Mr Trump had given previously, including a promise last year to end the conflict within 24 hours. 'It used to be 24 hours,' he said. 'It used to be 100 days. We have been through all of this, and we really want to understand what motivates the president of the United States.' Russia's stable of political commentators, writing on Telegram and speaking on state television, have expressed little alarm. Some suggested Russia would continue fighting unfazed. Others said Mr Trump was bluffing. Still others thought Mr Trump remained uncommitted to Ukraine. Mr Andrei Kartapolov, chair of the defence committee in Russia's lower chamber of parliament, said it remained unclear from Mr Trump's comments what types and quantities of US weapons would be delivered to Ukraine. Speaking on the 60 Minutes talk show on Russian state television on July 15, Mr Kartapolov said the additional Patriot air defence systems that Mr Trump had approved for shipment were expensive, took a long time to produce and were susceptible to Russian strikes. (Officials told The New York Times, however, that nearly all of the weapons in question are immediately available to ship to Ukraine.) 'We are ready for any development,' Mr Kartapolov said. Mr Konstantin Simonov, a commentator on the same show, argued that Mr Trump had not in fact changed his position. 'He does not listen to us on the topic of the root causes of the conflict,' Mr Simonov said. 'His position is simple: Let's finish everything, quickly, fix it. Here are your geopolitical bills for my peacekeeping services.' Mr Simonov, director general of a Russian think-tank called the National Energy Security Fund, predicted that Mr Trump would ultimately approve new penalties against Russia. But he questioned whether Washington would be willing to 'further tighten the spiral of conflict with China,' one of the biggest buyers of Russian oil, through harsh oil-related measures against Beijing. US negotiators recently brokered an agreement with China after Mr Trump began a trade war. Russian officials have underscored that they are willing to continue direct negotiations with Ukraine. But US officials say the talks have seen little progress toward peace, though the two sides have agreed to prisoner swops and exchanges of dead soldiers. Mr Fyodor Lukyanov, a Russian foreign policy analyst who has advised the Kremlin, wrote that Moscow likely assumes the United States under Mr Trump would not become as involved in supporting Ukraine as Washington had been in recent years. Though Mr Trump is 'fed up', Mr Lukyanov wrote, 'Putin's position has not changed one iota, and, apparently, he does not intend to adjust it in any way in order to maintain relations'. NYTIMES
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Putin Ambassador Accuses UK Of Helping Ukraine Attack Russia – And Comes Up With A Bizarre British Motive
Vladimir Putin's ambassador to Britain has accused the UK of aiding Ukraine in its major attack against Russia last weekend. Ukraine deployed more than a hundred drones inside Russia last weekend in a sophisticated operation which destroyed more than 40 warplanes. Andrei Kelin told Sky News that Ukraine could only have achieved this 'serious escalation' if the UK had offered up its 'geospace data' for use. While denying that Kyiv's astonishing attack was a 'humiliation' for Moscow, Kelin warned Ukraine not to 'try to engulf World War III'. 'We know how much London is involved, how deeply British forces are involved in working together with Ukraine in targeting,' he said. The ambassador claimed only London and Washington have access to such 'geospace data', but that he does not believe Donald Trump would have aided Ukraine in such a way. According to Kelin, the UK wants to 'concentrate' on Russia to distract from its own internal issues. 'This story is as old as the world,' he told Sky News. 'When the government is not capable of dealing with internal economics and could not provide the population with normal conditions of life, then it tries to find an outside threat and concentrate on this threat.' It's worth noting that Putin's invasion of Ukraine has actually put a strain on Russia's economy because the president is redirecting funds to the defence sector and businesses tied to the war. As Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin, said, this means the life of Russian civilians suffers. The ambassador also questioned defence secretary John Healey's recent claim that the UK is getting 'daily threats' from Russia. 'We do not represent any threat to Britain, at all, neither on the sea or in the air,' Kelin insisted. Asked by Sky News if there was any accuracy to the claims, the UK's environment secretary Steve Reed said he was not aware of any further details. He said: 'I'm afraid that's not something I can give you an answer to because I don't know the answer to that. 'I know that we as a government, cross-party actually, are standing alongside Ukraine as they try to defend themselves against a brutal unprovoked illegal attack, an invasion, from Putin.' The White House previously claimed it had no prior knowledge of Ukraine's attack. Putin's 'Blatant Disregard' For Russian Troops Unveiled As Moscow Approaches 'Grizzly' Milestone Why Ukraine's Surprise Attack Is Being Called 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' Keir Starmer Puts The UK On A War Footing As He Warns Of 'Growing Russian Aggression'
