Moscow has rejected western “ultimatums” and accused the European Union and Nato of putting “indecent” pressure on US president Donald Trump, after he agreed a new deal on arms for Ukraine and gave Russia 50 days to reach peace with Kyiv or face “severe” tariffs on trade.
“It is clear that he is under enormous – I would say indecent – pressure from the European Union and the current Nato leadership, which unceremoniously supports the demands of [Ukraine] and continues to pump [it] full of modern weapons, including offensive ones,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday in China.
He also noted that Mr Trump previously pledged to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945 in one day, and that his administration aimed for a significant breakthrough in peace efforts by the time he marked 100 days in office in April.
“We want to understand what is behind this statement: 50 days. It used to be 24 hours. And 100 days. We have been through all this before and really want to understand what is motivating the US president,” Mr Lavrov said.
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Mr Trump said on Monday he was “very, very unhappy” with Russian president Vladimir Putin after several conservations that he thought had brought peace within reach. Later, he told the BBC he was “disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him”.
Russia and countries that buy its oil would face 100 per cent tariffs unless Mr Putin reached a peace deal with Ukraine in 50 days, Mr Trump said, while also announcing plans to sell “billions” of dollars’ worth of weaponry to Nato for subsequent delivery to Kyiv.
“Above all, we note that any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us,” said Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.
“We need to focus on political and diplomatic work. The president of the Russian Federation has said repeatedly that we are ready to negotiate and the diplomatic path is preferable for us,” he added.
“However, if this is not met with a proper response, if we cannot reach our set goals through diplomacy, then the special military operation will continue ... We would like Washington and Nato in general to treat this with the utmost seriousness.”
Russia calls its full-scale invasion of pro-western Ukraine a “special military operation”, and says it will go on until Kyiv and the West accept its occupation of five regions of Ukraine and the country abandons its ambition to join Nato.
“The US president’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We will certainly need time to analyse the rhetoric from Washington,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
He also said the new US-Nato deal on arms for Kyiv was “taken by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace but as a signal to prolong the war.”
Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia who is now deputy chairman of its security council, gave a typically blunt response to Mr Trump’s announcement: “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”
Some politicians and commentators in Ukraine questioned why Mr Trump gave Russia another 50 days to keep bombarding the country before imposing tariffs, but Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked him for his “willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace.”
Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal resigned on Tuesday as part of a government reshuffle. He is tipped to become defence minister and to be replaced as premier by the current economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko.
