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Germany warns US it ‚should not engage with Putin’s stalling tactics‘
The likelihood of the US successfully brokering a Ukraine peace deal in the next few months has plummeted, according to senior Trump administration official.
Despite boasting that he would end the war in 24 hours once he entered office, Donald Trump had privately set a target of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine by April or May, two senior Washington sources told Reuters. But neither that nor a lasting peace deal seems imminent, they admitted.
Washington officials have acknowledged that Vladimir Putin is actively resisting their attempts to strike a ceasefire and discussed what, if any, economic or diplomatic punishments could push Russia closer to a deal, the sources said.
Half of the US Senate, including 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats, has banded together to introduce prospective sanctions on Russia which would be imposed if it refuses to engage in good faith negotiations with Ukraine.
The Kremlin will look to bring Trump back onside with Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev reportedly set to visit Washington this week, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Kyiv continued trading drone fire overnight on Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military reporting 74 drones were launched by Putin’s forces, who said they had in turn shot down 93 Ukrainian drones.
The Ukrainian military recorded 176 clashes with Russian forces over the past day, 64 of which took place on the eastern Pokrovsk front.
Vladimir Putin’s forces have been steadily advancing near Pokrovsk, a strategic Ukrainian town which serves as a supply hub for other areas of the frontline. Russia has aimed to cut supply lines to and from Pokrovsk to other Ukrainian-controlled areas.
Clashes were also recorded on the fronts in Kharkiv, Kupiansk, Lyman, Toretsk, Kursk and others.
The grinding war of attrition in eastern Ukraine has seen Russia send large masses of troops charging towards stretched Ukrainian defences, claiming incremental territorial gains at the cost of large manpower losses.
Dozens of people were evacuated from an apartment building in the Russian city of Kursk following a Ukrainian drone attack, a regional official said on Wednesday.
„As a result of the attack of enemy drones on Kursk, there is damage to an apartment building in the city centre,“ the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, said on Telegram.
At least 60 people were evacuated from the building which was hit with drone debris, he said. „Fortunately, there are no casualties.“
Ukraine has not yet commented on the attack, the size of which remains unclear.
Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin.
Trump, seemingly mesmerised by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of Nato and other allies. All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).
That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.
Associate editor Sean O’Grady writes:
Half of the US Senate, including 25 Republicans and 25 Democrats, banded together to introduce prospective sanctions on Russia which would be imposed if it refuses to engage in good faith negotiations with Ukraine.
Led by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, the group said it would impose primary and secondary sanctions against Russia if Moscow does not engage in talks or initiated another attempt to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.
„The sanctions against Russia require tariffs on countries who purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products. They are hard hitting for a reason,“ the two senators said in a statement, a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided Congress.
„The dominating view in the United States Senate is that Russia is the aggressor, and that this horrific war and Putin’s aggression must end now and be deterred in the future,“ they said.
Donald Trump’s nominee to become America’s most senior military general has voiced his support for military assistance to Ukraine to “deter Russia from further aggression”.
Retired Lieutenant General Dan Caine is Mr Trump’s pick to become the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff – the highest-ranking officer in the US armed forces and the main military advisor to the president.
Speaking at the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt Gen Caine said US military assistance “improves Ukraine’s position at the negotiating table and deters Russia from further aggression”.
„From a military standpoint, Ukraine has the right to self-defense, and from that standpoint our security assistance helps Ukraine to defend itself,“ he said according to the published transcript of his confirmation hearing.
But Washington should “focus on what unique capabilities only the US can provide” while Europe “increases its share of support”.
Lt Gen Caine believes Moscow will “continue to prosecute the war in 2025” because it “likely views the conflict is in its favour”.
Kirill Dmitriev, the 49-year-old chief of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, is reportedly set to visit Washington to meet Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.
But who is Kyiv-born Mr Dmitriev, and why is he being sent by Moscow on what would be Russia’s first diplomatic visit to the US since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022?
Mr Dmitriev, who holds regular meetings with Vladimir Putin, was appointed in February as Putin’s special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation.
Born in Kyiv in Soviet Ukraine, the envoy went on to study at Stanford University in California before being awarded an MBA with distinction at Harvard.
He speaks fluent English, worked at Goldman Sachs in New York alongside McKinsey & Company, before returning to Moscow where he worked in an US-Russian investment management company.
He has built strong relations with key members of the Trump team, having played a role in early Russia-US contacts when Mr Trump first took power in 2016. Mr Dmitriev also met US special envoy Steve Witkoff when he visited Moscow in March.
Having flattered Mr Trump, he may be seen as the perfect fit for a Washington visit. „Trump (is) driving tectonic shifts in geopolitics. False malign paradigms (are) collapsing, giving way to common sense and values-driven solutions,” Mr Dmitriev said.
Moscow has likely tasked him with discussing the return of US companies to Russia, rare earths, energy prices, prisoner swaps and peace in Ukraine, among other topics.
Mr Dmitriev was sanctioned by the US as a „a known Putin ally“, but has not been sanctioned by the European Union. According to CNN, Washington has temporarily lifted the sanctions for the visit.
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Fast peace deal unlikely admit Trump’s officials as US anger builds at Putin – The Independent
