Bipartisan support for US plan to slap 500 per cent tariff on Russian allies if truce not reached
America is plotting a savage move against Russia and its allies if the Kremlin does not agree to a truce with Ukraine soon. It comes as Vladimir Putin sends his top negotiator direct to Washington.
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President Vladimir Putin has sent his most powerful envoy to Washington in a bid to ease tensions over Russia’s rejection of the US-brokered ceasefire proposal.
Kirill Dmitriev was born in Ukraine and educated in America and this week he will meet with President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff according to Reuters.
Mr Dmitriev responded to reports of the meeting, and criticisms of the direct dialogue between America and Russia, in a post on X.
“The resistance to US–Russia dialogue is real – driven by entrenched interests and old narratives,” Mr Dmitriev wrote.
“But what if improved relations are exactly what the world needs for lasting global security and peace?”
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US senators has proposed legislation that would slap sanctions on countries friendly to Russia if Moscow disrupts ongoing negotiations to end the Ukraine war.
The group of 50 Republican and Democratic senators introduced a proposal to impose a 500 per cent tariff on imports from countries that buy fuel and uranium from Russia, if Moscow “refuses to engage in good faith negotiations for a lasting peace with Ukraine.”
The sanctions would also be applied if Russia “initiates another effort, including military invasion, that undermines the sovereignty of Ukraine after peace is negotiated,” the senators, led by Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Richard Blumenthal, said in a statement.
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GERMANY DEPLOYS TROOPS TO LITHUANIA
Germany has announced its first deployment of soldiers to foreign soil for the first time since WWII.
Berlin will send 5000 troops to Lithuania to be stationed with NATO troops to defend Europe against Russia.
A new unit established for the mission, the 45th Armoured Brigade, was formally launched in a ceremony outside Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, and will be fully operational by 2027.
“We have a clear mission: to ensure the protection, freedom and security of our Lithuanian allies on NATO’s eastern flank,” said Brigadier General Christoph Huber, commander of the German brigade in the NATO ally.
“In doing so, we also protect NATO territory — and Germany itself.”
Germany had previously deployed troops to Afghanistan, though not permanently.
As of now, there are 150 Germans stationed in Lithuania, and the figure is expected to grow to 500 by the end of the year.
Lithuania borders Moscow’s ally Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, the likely location of any future hostilities between Moscow and the alliance.
The Baltic States, which Moscow controlled in Soviet times, have said that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not intend to stop his expansionism in Ukraine.
Berlin and Vilnius’s move is the most direct response to that concern so far.
Meanwhile, the last of four American soldiers who went missing in Lithuania last week was on Tuesday also found dead, the US Army said, without providing additional details.
The three other soldiers were found dead on Monday after rescuers recovered their M88 Hercules armoured vehicle from a swamp.
Hundreds of local and foreign troops and others including engineers and divers had been involved in the operation.
Lithuanian authorities received a report last Tuesday that the soldiers went missing during a military drill at a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.
“The fourth US Army Soldier … was found deceased near Pabrade, Lithuania the afternoon of April 1,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement.
“The Soldier’s identity is being withheld pending confirmation of notification of next of kin,” it added.
The army did not specify where exactly the soldier was found.
Hundreds of people gathered at the US embassy in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Tuesday evening to pay their respects to the four soldiers, who had been in Lithuania for two months.
Carrying US flags, people laid flowers, lit candles and held a minute of silence for the soldiers.
CHINA OFFERS TO BROKER TRUCE
China has offered to help negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine as Russia says the US-brokered ceasefire proposal fails to address the “root causes” of the conflict.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov outlined the reasons behind the rejection of the current proposal in an interview with state media.
“We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form,” Ryabkov said.
“As far as we can see, there is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict. It is completely absent, and that must be overcome.”
It comes as President Vladimir Putin has met with a delegation of top Chinese diplomats including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Mr Wang held talks with Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, in which both sides also praised strong ties between the countries and Putin’s personal relationship with Xi Jinping.
“China is ready, taking into account the aspirations of the parties involved, to play a constructive role in the settlement (of the conflict),” Mr Wang told the RIA Novosti news agency.
At the start of talks with Lavrov, he added: “We will work together to make new contributions to the cause of peace and development for humanity.”
Putin later expressed to Wang his “satisfaction with the way our relationship is developing” while Wang talked up strengthening ties and said the two countries were pursuing their common global and regional interests.
Putin said Russia was preparing a “good, full program” for Xi’s visit to Moscow in May – which will include events to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
China presents itself as a neutral party in the conflict and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations.
But it is a close political and economic ally of Russia and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of Moscow’s offensive – which it has never condemned.
Meanwhile German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Putin of stalling talks to halt the fighting in Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv.
“He is manoeuvring his way out of negotiations, continuing his illegal war of aggression and escalating with brutal, threatening attacks on houses,” Ms Baerbock said at a press conference with her Ukrainian counterpart.
“Putin cannot be trusted in this situation,” she said.
“There will only be a real and lasting peace when the Russian president realises that he cannot win this war, that his destruction is not successful.”
RUSSIA STILL ‘OPEN’ TO TALKING TO TRUMP
The Kremlin said that Putin was still “open” to speaking to Donald Trump after the US president said he was “pissed off” with the Russian leader over little progress on a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“The president remains open to contact with President Trump,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a briefing call.
He said there was no phone call scheduled between the two leaders, but that one could be “organised promptly” if deemed “necessary”.
“We are continuing work. Firstly, on developing bilateral relations and also working on implementing some ideas, linked to resolving the Ukrainian (conflict),” Peskov said.
“Work is ongoing. There is nothing concrete yet. This process is time-consuming, probably due to the fact of the complexity of the substance,” he added.
On Monday, Putin ordered 160,000 servicemen be drafted by July 15, a higher figure than previous conscription drives as Moscow seeks to boost its army’s size.
Russian men are eligible to be drafted for mandatory military service through biannual call-ups.
The Kremlin and defence ministry say they are not sent into combat and the call-ups have nothing to do with the Ukraine conflict.
However, Kyiv has said throughout the conflict that it has taken Russian conscripts captive and Putin admitted at the start that some had been sent to fight by mistake.
The number of conscripts compares to 150,000 in 2024 and 134,500 in 2022, when Russia launched its offensive on Ukraine, state media reported.
Putin last year ordered Russia to boost the size of its army to 1.5 million active servicemen – an increase of some 180,000 troops over three years.
“The forthcoming draft campaign is in no way connected with the special military operation in Ukraine,” the defence ministry said on social media.
TRUMP ‘PISSED OFF’ AT PUTIN
US President Donald Trump said he was “very angry, pissed off” with Putin, according to NBC, marking a sharp change of tone as Washington seeks to end the war in Ukraine.
NBC’s Kristen Welker said Mr Trump had called her to express his anger over Mr Putin questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s future as a leader – something that Mr Trump himself has done in the past.
Ms Welker, on her NBC show Meet The Press on Sunday, quoted directly from an early-morning telephone conversation with the president.
Mr Trump said that “if Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault” then he would impose “secondary tariffs on all oil coming out of Russia.”
Ms Welker said Mr Trump told her “I was very angry, pissed off” when Putin started making comments about Zelensky’s credibility and talking about new leadership in Ukraine.
‘FINISH THEM OFF’: PUTIN VIOLATES US-BROKERED PARTIAL CEASEFIRE
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to strike an energy facility in southern Ukraine, flagrantly flouting the partial ceasefire negotiated at the behest of US President Donald Trump.
Under the deal, both nations had agreed to halt strikes in the Black Sea and leave one another’s power infrastructure alone.
Putin appeared unrepentant about the strikes on the power grid of the southern Ukraine city of Kherson when speaking at the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk.
“I was saying not so long ago: ‘We will finish them off.’ There are reasons to believe that we will finish them off,” Putin said.
“We are gradually, not as fast as some would like, but nevertheless persistently and confidently moving toward achieving all the goals stated at the beginning of the special operation.”
‘PUTIN WILL DIE SOON’: ZELENSKY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted Vladimir Putin “will die soon” amid swirling speculation about the Russian leader’s ailing health — as he warned the US against helping Moscow escape from political and economic isolation.
“He [Putin] will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to an end,” Mr Zelensky said in an interview with Eurovision News.
The Ukrainian leader’s blunt assessment follows years-long rumours about the Russian strongman’s health woes — including reported strokes, multiple bouts of cancer and even Parkinson’s disease.
PARIS SUMMIT AGREES TO RAMP UP RUSSIA SANCTIONS
European countries have agreed at a summit in Paris to ramp up rather than lift sanctions on Russia over its war against Ukraine, as Britain and France began sketching out plans to send a “reassurance” force after any peace.
President Emmanuel Macron hosted the meeting of Ukraine’s European allies and President Zelensky in the latest effort to agree a co-ordinated policy after Donald Trump shocked Europe by opening direct talks with the Kremlin.
EU DEBATES COALITION OF THE WILLING
Mr Macron said France and Britain were leading efforts to send a “reassurance force” to Ukraine after any end to the fighting.
“It does not have unanimity today, but we do not need unanimity to do this,” he said.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has long made clear her reserves over the troop deployment plan, said she hoped the United States will be involved in the next European meeting on Ukraine and repeated Rome’s refusal to send troops to defend any peace deal.
– with AFP
Originally published as Bipartisan support for US plan to slap 500 per cent tariff on Russian allies if truce not reached
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