Trump hints at sanctions against Russia
President Donald Trump has said the US would send Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv and voiced displeasure with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Follow updates.
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President Donald Trump has said Washington would send Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv and hinted at new sanctions on Russia, once again voicing displeasure with Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The US president’s announcement of the much-needed weapons for Ukraine came after he earlier said he would make a “major statement... on Russia” on Monday (local time).
The announcement could come amid a diplomatic flurry set for Monday, with the US special envoy starting his latest trip to Ukraine and Trump set to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington.
Moscow’s offensive on Ukraine has lasted for more than three years, with attacks intensifying this summer and US-led negotiations so far yielding no results to end the fighting.
“We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need,” Trump said Sunday, without specifying how many weapons he would send to Ukraine.
“I haven’t agreed on the number yet, but they’re going to have some because they do need protection,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, as he returned from watching the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey.
The White House has U-turned from an announcement earlier this month that it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv, instead announcing a new deal which would involve NATO paying the United States for some of the weapons it sends to Ukraine.
“We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military and they’re going to pay us 100 percent for them,” Trump said.
“It’ll be business for us,” he added.
Rutte’s Oval Office meeting will be closed to media, and he is slated to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well.
Earlier this week, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was “close to reaching a multi-level agreement on new Patriot systems and missiles for them.”
Trump also repeated that he was “disappointed” in Putin, as he grows increasingly exasperated with the Russian leader.
“Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,” said the disgruntled Trump on Sunday.
Last week, Trump accused Putin throwing “bullshit” at Washington on Ukraine - openly frustrated with the seeming impasse.
When he first returned to the White House in January, Trump insisted he could work with the Russian leader to end the war, holding off on hiking sanctions unlike European allies.
But Russia has for months refused a ceasefire proposed by the United States and Kyiv.
Trump has repeatedly voiced displeasure with Putin in recent days, and on Sunday hinted he might finally be ready to toughen sanctions as momentum grows for a deterrent package in Congress.
When asked about whether he would announce any sanctions against Russia, Trump responded: “We’re going to see what we will see tomorrow, OK?” and repeated plans to meet with Rutte.
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US ENVOY ARRIVES IN UKRAINE
US envoy Keith Kellogg arrived in Kyiv on Monday for defence talks with senior leadership after US President Donald Trump announced new Patriot air defence systems supplies to Ukraine.
The visit -- more than three years into the Kremlin’s invasion - comes as Russian forces killed three civilians in east Ukraine and launched dozens of long-range drones at targets across the country.
“We welcome US Special Representative Keith Kellogg to Ukraine,” Andriy Yermak, a top aide to the Ukrainian president wrote on social media.
“Russia does not want to cease fire. Peace through strength is the principle of US President Donald Trump, and we support this approach,” Yermak added, alongside images of him welcoming Kellogg at Kyiv’s central train station.
Washington had said this month it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv but Trump has changed tack, criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin for intensifying attacks as US-led peace talks stalled.
Trump said this weekend Washington would also supply Kyiv with more Patriot air defence batteries, but added that the United States would not pay for them.
Kellogg’s visit comes as the US president is set to meet with NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington later on Monday.
Trump has said he would issue a “major statement” on the war on Monday.
NORTH KOREA PLEDGES ‘UNCONDITIONAL’ SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un offered Moscow his full support for its war in Ukraine during talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pyongyang state media said on Sunday.
Lavrov’s visit to North Korea was the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials as both countries deepen military and political ties amid Russia’s offensive against Kyiv.
Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to oust Ukrainian forces and has also provided the Russian army with artillery shells and missiles.
Moscow said Lavrov’s talks with Kim were held in a “warm comradely atmosphere.” Lavrov expressed “sincere gratitude to Pyongyang” for its role in Kursk and support of Russia’s operation, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Moscow also said the two sides “agreed” that the West was to blame for “the growing tension” on the Korean peninsula.
The ministry earlier posted a video on Telegram of the two men shaking hands and greeting each other with a hug.
It said the talks were held in Wonsan, a city on North Korea’s east coast where a massive resort was opened earlier this month - one of leader Kim’s pet projects.
Kim told Lavrov that Pyongyang was “ready to unconditionally support and encourage all the measures taken by the Russian leadership as regards the tackling of the root cause of the Ukrainian crisis”, KCNA said.
The North Korean leader also expressed a “firm belief that the Russian army and people would surely win victory in accomplishing the sacred cause of defending the dignity and basic interests of the country”.
He lauded Mr Putin’s “outstanding leadership”, the report said. The two men otherwise discussed “important matters for faithfully implementing the agreements made at the historic DPRK-Russia summit talks in June 2024”, KCNA said, referring to North Korea by its official acronym.
Mr Lavrov told Kim that Mr Putin “hopes for continued direct contacts in the very near future”, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
He left Pyongyang and landed in Beijing on Sunday to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Foreign Ministers’ Council, TASS reported on its Telegram account.
KCNA issued a statement on Sunday on the meeting between Lavrov and his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui, held a day earlier in the coastal city, saying that bilateral ties were becoming an “invincible alliance”.
Moscow “expressed its firm support for the DPRK side in its just efforts for defending the security of the state” during the meeting, KCNA said.
In return, Choe demonstrated “full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.
TASS earlier reported that Lavrov thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers who have been deployed to aid Russia during the ministerial meeting.
Around 600 North Korean soldiers have been killed and thousands more wounded fighting for Russia, Seoul has said.
RUSSIA SLAMS UKRAINE WITH 600 DRONES, MISSILES
Russia fired 597 drones and 26 long-range missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed, calling for sanctions to stop Moscow’s recent record barrages.
“Twenty-six cruise missiles and 597 attack drones were launched, of which more than half were ‘Shaheds’,” Mr Zelensky said on Saturday, referring to Iranian-made drones.
The Ukrainian air force said it had downed 319 Shahed drones and 25 missiles, adding that one missile and about 20 drones hit “five locations”. It did not elaborate.
Mr Zelensky called on his Western allies to send “more than just signals” to stop the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
“The pace of Russian air strikes requires swift decisions and it can be curbed right now through sanctions,” he said.
Mr Zelensky specifically urged punishment for those who “help Russia produce drones and profit from oil”.
Oil exports are important for the Russian economy especially in the face of existing Western sanctions.
RUSSIA HUNTS DOWN TOP UKRAINIAN SPY
Chilling video captured the moment a high-ranking Ukrainian spy was ruthlessly gunned down in a brazen, broad daylight ambush on the streets of Kyiv and left for dead.
Colonel Ivan Voronych, a senior security officer in Ukraine’s Security Service, was crossing the street in the Holosiivskyi district when an armed attacker ran up and blasted him with bullets at close range before fleeing, according to disturbing surveillance footage obtained by Ukrainian media and reports.
The assailant, who reportedly used a silenced pistol, was seen sprinting across a parking lot outside Colonel Voronych’s apartment building moments before unleashing five fatal rounds.
“With five shots at close range while leaving the apartment today at 8am, the enemy killer did his dirty work,” Roman Chervinsky, a former Ukrainian intelligence officer, told The Telegraph.
He emphasised that Colonel Voronych had been “fighting the enemy since 2014.”
Colonel Voronych, who led high-level special operations, counter-terrorism and security missions, was found with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene – with a fellow officer accusing Russia of plotting the vicious assassination, the outlet reported.
“A criminal investigation has been opened into the murder of an SSU employee in Kyiv’s Holosivskyi district,” a spokesperson for the security service told Ukrainska Pravada.
“The Security Service and the National Police are taking comprehensive measures to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring those responsible to justice.”
The attack comes nearly three months after senior Russian military general Yaroslav Maskalik was killed in a fiery car explosion in Moscow – one day after the Kremlin launched a deadly strike on Ukraine.
A bomb planted in a parked car was remotely detonated in April as Maskalik, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces’ main operations directorate, walked by the car located near his home, law enforcement sources said at the time.
Both Russia and Ukraine have conducted targeted killings since the war began in February 2022.
Originally published as Trump hints at sanctions against Russia
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