KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he hoped to press his US counterpart Donald Trump at the G7 summit this weekend to step up sanctions against Russia, as peace talks between the warring sides stall with the US president blaming both sides.
In two rounds of negotiations in Istanbul, Moscow and Kyiv have so far only agreed large-scale prisoner exchanges. Russia has rejected calls to halt its three-year invasion.
Trump has urged both sides to strike a peace deal and shown increasing frustration with both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin for not having found a way to end the war.
Trump displayed his irritation again Thursday, telling reporters at the White House that “I’m very disappointed in Russia, but I’m disappointed in Ukraine also, because I think deals could have been made”.
The US president has at times threatened new sanctions on Russia, which has ramped up its aerial attacks during the talks, but has so far failed to follow through.
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Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv that “I count on having a conversation” with Trump at the G7.
“This sanctions package is very important. The final decision is still in the White House, it depends on the President of the United States,” he added.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, is pushing what he calls a bipartisan “bone-breaking” bill to introduce a 500-percent tariff on countries buying Russian oil and gas, mostly targeting China and India.
‘Appeasement’
Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes as towns and cities across eastern Ukraine have been flattened by heavy bombardments.
Trump’s return to the White House has upended the West’s vital aid for Kyiv.
Europe has been left scrambling to see how it could fill any gap if he decides to pull US military, financial and intelligence support.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius appeared to deliver a blow to those plans during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday.
Speaking alongside Zelensky, he said Berlin was not planning to deliver Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine, which could allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory.
Instead, Pistorius announced 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in additional military aid.
That setback for Kyiv came just after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga told a security conference in Rome that the “diplomacy of appeasement does not work with Russia” – a veiled reference to Trump’s soft approach towards Putin.
Trump tells Putin to make Ukraine deal ‘now’ or face tariffs, sanctions
We want to end this war this year,“ he said.
Russia has been advancing on the battlefield for months and launched record drone strikes at Ukraine in recent days.
Two civilians were killed in the frontline Donetsk region in a drone strike on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.
Kyiv has responded to Russian bombardments with its own wave of drone strikes.
In Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, a two-year-old child was killed following one such attack, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram.
POW swap
The warring sides completed the latest stage of a prisoner swap on Thursday, freeing wounded soldiers in line with a deal struck at talks in Istanbul.
“Today, warriors of our Armed Forces, National Guard, and Border Guard Service are back home,” Zelensky said on social media.
The two sides agreed to each free more than 1,000 prisoners of war – all wounded or under the age of 25 – and return the bodies of killed soldiers.
Zelensky published pictures of the Ukrainian servicemen, all with freshly shaved heads, draped in national flags and smiling as they made phone calls and hugged people welcoming them at the border.
“They all require medical treatment,” as they were “severely wounded and seriously ill”, Zelensky added.
At the exchange, AFP reporters saw dozens of people – mostly women – waiting with pictures of their captured or missing relatives, hoping the freed soldiers could offer news about them.
Russian state media showed Moscow’s returned troops in uniforms chanting “Russia, Russia” with national flags around their shoulders.
Russia later accused Ukraine of not being “ready to conduct exchanges” on a daily basis, as it said the two sides had agreed at the Istanbul talks.
Kyiv said further swaps would take place in the coming days.
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