MORE SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA?
Trump, who is growing increasingly frustrated with both Russia and Ukraine as he tries to push them towards a peace settlement, said he was “always considering” secondary sanctions against Moscow if he thought it was blocking the process.
US officials have spoken about possible financial sanctions as well as potential secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil.
A Ukrainian diplomatic source told Reuters on Wednesday that Ukraine’s leadership would decide on its next steps for peace talks in Turkey once there was clarity on Putin’s participation.
“Everything will depend on whether Putin is scared of coming to Istanbul or not. Based on his response, the Ukrainian leadership will decide on the next steps,” the source said,
If Putin agrees to join, it would be the first meeting between the leaders of the two warring countries since December 2019. Direct talks between negotiators from Ukraine and Russia last took place in Istanbul in March 2022, a month after Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
Some unconfirmed Russian and US media reports had said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, would be in Istanbul and ready to meet their Ukrainian counterparts.
But Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, which is regarded as having good sources in the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin, said on Wednesday evening that Lavrov would not attend.
