Washington eases sanctions on Russia
The Treasury Department suspended until at least 29 April economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations.
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The Treasury Department suspended until at least 29 April economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations.
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump’s envoys were to meet Thursday with Ukrainian negotiators for the third time in two weeks to press his plan to end the war as his administration eased economic pressure on Russia.
Two days after the envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the US Treasury Department partially suspended measures that Trump had announced in October when he finally vowed to get tough on Moscow.
The Treasury Department suspended until at least 29 April economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations outside of Russia.
A ban remains in place to prevent the money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping US and European Union sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump’s sanctions had been one of the most concrete means to pressure Russia, which European diplomats accuse of trying to avoid pressure by pursuing negotiations.
Ukraine seeks ‘complete information’
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, will meet in the Miami area for dinner late Thursday with the top Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, a US official said.
The gathering, which will be closed to the press, came two days after the Trump duo met with Putin for five hours, stretching into the early morning, in Moscow.
“Our task now is to obtain complete information about what has been said in Russia and what other reasons Putin has found to prolong the war and to pressure Ukraine, to pressure us, our independence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address from Kyiv.
“Ukraine is prepared for any possible developments. Of course, we will work as constructively as possible with all our partners to ensure peace is achieved, and that it is a dignified peace.”
Trump said Wednesday that the envoys had a “reasonably good meeting” with Putin.
Pressed on whether Witkoff and Kushner got any sense that Putin genuinely wanted to halt the invasion, Trump replied: “He would like to end the war. That was their impression.”
But Putin showed no public signs of budging, as Russia makes slow but steady progress seizing land in eastern Ukraine.
“This is a complex task and a challenging mission that President Trump took upon himself,” Putin said of the diplomacy in an interview published Thursday as he visited India.
“Achieving consensus among competing parties is no easy task, but President Trump, truly, I believe — he sincerely tries to do this,” he said, according to magazine India Today.
“I think we should engage with this effort rather than obstruct it.”
Putin’s visit to India, a historic partner of Russia, comes as international isolation of him gradually eases.
Trump in August welcomed Putin to Alaska where they made no clear progress on ending the Ukraine war.
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