By Olaitan Ibrahim
Donald Trump has threatened to devastate Russia’s economy if Vladimir Putin rejects a proposed 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.
The US president said on Wednesday that the consequences if Russia snubbed the truce would be “very bad”, but insisted he did not believe it would come to that.
His intervention came after it was reported Putin was prepared to delay any agreement that would slow the momentum of his forces on the battlefield.
Asked about pressuring his Russian counterpart into a deal, Mr. Trump said: “Yeah. We can. But I hope it’s not going to be necessary.
“As you know, I’ve always said Ukraine might have been the more difficult party.”
Mr. Trump has previously threatened Russia with massive economic sanctions for its long-range bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
“There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant, in a financial sense,” the US president told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia, would be devastating for Russia. But I don’t want to do that because I want peace.”
The proposed temporary ceasefire was thrashed out by Ukrainian and US officials during eight hours of talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
US and Ukrainian officials reached a temporary ceasefire proposal to end the Ukraine war in Jeddah
US officials had discussed the plans with their Russian counterparts on the telephone, and Steve Witkoff, the US envoy, was going to Moscow this week for talks, the White House said on Wednesday.
On Wednesday night, John Healey, Britain’s Defence Secretary, delivered a message to Putin in which he urged him to “accept the ceasefire”.
Speaking at the Paris Defence Security Forum, Mr Healey said: “These are decisive days for peace in Ukraine. The Ukrainians want peace, we all want peace.
“I say to President Putin: over to you now. You say you want to talk: prove it. Accept the ceasefire, begin negotiations, end the war. Make no mistake, the pressure is now on Putin.”
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, earlier told reporters that Russia was waiting to hear from Washington, and it was expected there would be a phone call between Mr Trump and Putin.
Ukraine’s agreement to support the ceasefire resulted in Washington restarting intelligence-sharing and weapons deliveries immediately.
Starlink services, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, resumed following Tuesday’s agreement by Kyiv to the proposed ceasefire Credit: Reuters/Inna Varenytsia
Radek Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister, confirmed on Wednesday that US supplies to Ukraine via Poland had “returned to previous levels”.
He also said Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet services, some of which are funded by Warsaw, had been resumed.
Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, has said Kyiv could cede territory to Russia as part of a peace deal.
Asked whether territorial concessions were discussed during the talks in Saudi Arabia, he said: “Well, we had conversations.”
Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, told reporters in Kyiv he would not officially recognise territories seized by Russia under any deal.
“We are fighting for our independence. Therefore, we will not recognise any occupied territories as Russia’s. This is a fact,” he said.
“Our people have fought for this, our heroes died. How many injured, how many passed. No one will forget about it… This is the most important red line. We will not let anyone forget about this crime against Ukraine.”
Mr. Zelensky added that he had no “trust” in Russia, despite having agreed to the US proposal for a 30-day truce to Moscow. “I have emphasised this many times, none of us trust the Russians,” he said.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials told The Telegraph the ceasefire proposal was partially about calling Putin’s bluff on claims he was prepared to broker a peace deal.
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It is believed that if Putin rejects the peace deal, the UK will back America in any further sanctions it places on Moscow.
A senior defence source said: “We will throw our weight behind Trump and anything he does to get him to the table. Only he can do that. If he’s going to do that by tough economic circumstances, then of course we’ll do that.”