Trump says he's prepared to impose economic sanctions on Russia over war in Ukraine
發佈日期: 2025-08-27 20:03
TVB News
U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if President Vladimir Putin fails to agree to a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.
Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov made it clear last week that Putin won't meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until the Ukrainians agree to some of Moscow's long-standing demands.
This as Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian and U.S. teams will meet this week to explore the possibility of peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
Tracey Furniss reports.
U.S. President Donald Trump has withheld long-threatened sanctions against Russia in his latest push to end the more than three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump is seeking one-on-one talks between Zelenskyy and Putin.
Though Zelenskyy has agreed in principle to such talks, Putin has not.
In his nightly address, the Ukrainian president said: "Russia is giving signals that it is going to continue to evade real negotiations. This can only be changed by strong sanctions, strong tariffs -- real pressure."
During a marathon Cabinet meeting in Washington about the Russia-Ukraine war, President Trump was asked by reporters why Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelenskyy.
(Reporter:) This past weekend (Russian Foreign Minister) Sergey Lavrov was saying that Putin will not sign a peace deal with Zelenskyy because Russia views him as illegitimate. I'm just wondering if the Russians have been relaying this to your team, if they view Zelenskyy as a leader worth signing a peace-deal with?
U.S. President Donald Trump said: "It doesn't matter what they say. Everybody's posturing. Steve (Witkoff), you have a different answer?"
"I agree with you, sir," special envoy Steve Witkoff said.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met on Tuesday with the outgoing Chief of the UK Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Antony Radakin, and was introduced to his successor, Richard Knighton.
Speaking during the meeting, Radakin told Zelenskyy the UK's support for Ukraine is not personality dependent, it's nation dependent.
"This is also about introducing Rich and to stress that our support to you, and Ukraine is not personality dependent, it's nation dependent and Rich (Knighton) will continue that level of support in exactly the same that you would expect," Radakin said.
"Thank you so much," Zelenskyy said.
