The US president has defended holding back sanctions on Russia to preserve negotiations, while Moscow says it values Washington’s mediation efforts
Negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict are making “great progress,” US President Donald Trump has said, defending his decision to hold back economic pressure on Russia to keep diplomacy moving.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said his priority is securing a settlement rather than taking steps that could undermine ongoing negotiations.
“I am in the process of negotiating peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table,” he wrote.
“Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations!” Trump added, without specifying who he meant. His administration has previously negotiated the release of several Americans held in Russia and has also helped mediate several prisoner-of-war exchanges between Moscow and Kiev, including a May agreement providing for the return of 1,000 prisoners on each side.
The president’s remarks followed his waiver of sweeping penalties pushed by the late US lawmaker Lindsey Graham, dubbed the “sanctions from hell,” including tariffs targeting Russia and major purchasers of its energy. Washington also eased restrictions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month to alleviate rising global fuel prices.
Trump noted that he retains the option to enact the sanctions later, but argued that Russia is “doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.”
He also accused Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky of resisting a settlement despite extensive Western funding, while criticizing Kiev’s continued attacks on Russian refineries for disrupting global diesel markets.
Moscow welcomed Washington’s continued diplomatic engagement on Monday. “The American side continues its mediation and peacemaking efforts, which we highly appreciate,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
However, a final settlement is impossible without participation by someone representing Kiev who is prepared to take responsibility, he added.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy and a participant in negotiations, also applauded Trump’s message for exposing Zelensky’s “true hidden motivation” and pointing out that the Ukrainian leader “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.”
At Friday’s EU summit in Brussels, Zelensky sought another €70 billion ($78.5 billion) in foreign financing for next year, in addition to the €90 billion already being paid out by the bloc to bankroll Kiev’s war effort.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico rejected participation in further financing, while Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis ruled out guarantees from Prague. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, however, said the European Commission would nevertheless examine further funding options.
