KEY POINTS
- Russia says it needs time to respond to Trump’s 50-day ultimatum to end the Ukraine war.
- Moscow confirms it remains open to new peace talks with Kyiv.
- Kremlin warns US weapons supply may encourage Ukraine to continue fighting.
- Russia is awaiting proposals from Ukraine for a third round of direct talks.
- Denmark and the Netherlands consider joining Trump’s plan to fund US weapons for Ukraine.
MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday said it needed time to respond to US President Donald Trump’s 50-day ultimatum to end the Ukraine war or face new sanctions, but it was ready for fresh talks with Kyiv.
On Monday, Trump gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, voicing fresh frustration with Moscow, and laid out an arrangement with NATO to supply Kyiv with new military aid sponsored by the alliance’s member countries.
Moscow said it needed more time to respond fully to Trump’s statement, but hinted it did not appear conducive to successful negotiations.
“President Trump’s statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow’s first reaction to the comments.
Trump warned that if no deal was concluded, he would slap “very severe tariffs” on Russia’s trade partners in a bid to impede Moscow’s ability to finance the war.
Peace talks on ending the Ukraine conflict, now in its fourth year, have stalled.
But Peskov said Russia was still ready to negotiate and was “waiting for proposals from the Ukrainian side on the timing of the third round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations”.
“We maintain our readiness,” Peskov added, but indicated Trump’s announcement could embolden Kyiv and hamper peace efforts.
“It seems that such a decision made in Washington and in NATO countries and directly in Brussels will be perceived by Kyiv not as a signal for peace but for the continuation of the war,” the Kremlin spokesperson said.
Russia-Ukraine talks
Two rounds of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, held in Turkiye in recent months, have failed to yield a breakthrough on ending the conflict and yielded only large-scale prisoner exchanges.
Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a ceasefire, and his negotiators have demanded that Ukraine shun all Western military support and pull out of four regions in its east and south that Moscow claims to have annexed.
Kyiv and the West have rejected them as a call for Ukraine’s capitulation.
The Kremlin spokesperson said Russia was open to another round of talks and was “waiting for proposals from the Ukrainian side on the timing.”
The Ukrainian side has called it “pointless” to hold further talks with the current Russian delegation, which it says lacks any mandate to make concessions and has turned up to two rounds of talks with a string of demands it finds unacceptable.
Denmark and the Netherlands on Tuesday said they were looking to participate in Trump’s plan for Europe to buy American weapons for Ukraine.
Under the scheme, some of NATO’s European members would pay Washington for the weapons, including vital Patriot air defence systems, which would then be shipped to Ukraine.
The United States has been Kyiv’s most important military backer, but Trump’s erratic policy on whether to support Ukraine and his attempts to engage Putin have spooked Europe and Kyiv.
