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Russia says threat of new sanctions ‘routine’ after Trump’s 10-day ultimatum to end war
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Russia has developed immunity to sanctions now after living under them for years, a senior Kremlin official said in response to US president Donald Trump’s 10-day ultimatum to agree to a ceasefire or face sanctions.
“We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said yesterday.
The US president has warned Russia and said that Washington would start imposing punitive tariffs and other measures in 10 days if Moscow does not prepare to end its war in Ukraine.
This comes as Ukraine has detained an air force officer on accusations of spying for Russia, who they said have leaked the location of F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets.
“In particular, the enemy’s priority targets were airfields where F-16s, Mirage 2000s and Su-24s were based,” Ukraine’s domestic security agency said.
Moscow regularly targets airfields and military bases across Ukraine, especially areas it believes are home to Western-provided weapons like the F-16 or Mirage jets.
US president Donald Trump has threatened to keep trade with Russia to a minimum amid an escalating war of words with the Kremlin over ceasefire ultimatum.
“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!” Mr Trump said on his Truth Social account this morning.
His remarks come hours after the US said it will impose a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India starting on Friday. Mr Trump has slammed India’s trade with Russia despite the ongoing war with Ukraine.
The White House had previously warned India about its high average applied tariffs. “While India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their Tariffs are far too high,” Trump wrote in the Truth Social post.
“They have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE — ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!,” Mr Trump said yesterday.
At least four people were killed and more than 50 injured in Russia’s late-night attack on Kyiv, local officials said.
The attack killed four people, including a woman, and left 52 injured, Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on his Telegram, confirming a drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital.
Three police officers were among the injured and a total of 29 people required hospitalisation as of approximately 7am local time, the mayor said.
“In the Shevchenkivskyi district, a wave of strikes hit the windows in the children’s department of a medical institution. Currently, 20 injured,” Mr Klitschko said.
The overnight attack, which started in the late hours of yesterday, came shortly after the US president threatened to roll out new sanctions on Russia.
It was late at night when they came for Dmytro Shabanov, a security assistant in eastern Ukraine at the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
His seizure from his home in the Luhansk region in April 2022 — weeks after Moscow’s full-scale invasion — was part of a coordinated operation by pro-Russian forces who detained him and two other Ukrainian OSCE workers. Maksym Petrov, an interpreter, also was seized in the Luhansk region, while Vadym Golda, another security assistant, was detained in neighboring Donetsk.
More than three years later, the three Ukrainian civilians who had worked with the international group’s ceasefire monitoring efforts in the eastern regions remain behind bars. They have not been part of recent large-scale prisoner exchanges with Russia.
A Russian journalist has been convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of “extremism” over her links to an opposition group, part of an unrelenting crackdown on dissent.
A court in the city of Ufa in Russia’s Bashkortostan region found Olga Komleva, 46, guilty of involvement with an organisation of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny that was officially branded “extremist”.
Following her closed-door trial, the judge also found Komleva guilty on charges of “spreading false information” about the Russian military. She rejected the charges.
Komleva, who has been in custody since her arrest in March last year, had worked as a volunteer at the regional branch of Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption before it was outlawed in 2021.
She also worked for an independent news outlet and covered protests in the region.
Navalny, who was Vladimir Putin’s fiercest and most prominent foe and relentlessly campaigned against official corruption, died in February last year in an Arctic penal colony while serving a 19-year sentence on a number of charges, including running an extremist group.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he has approved key principles for large-scale weapons agreements with the United States.
“These are large-scale agreements, which I discussed with president (Donald) Trump, and I hope very much that we will be able to implement them all,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening video address to the nation, adding that it would strengthen both countries.
Without providing any specifics, Mr Zelensky said: “This will undoubtedly strengthen both of our countries and, therefore, our allies and partners. We highly value America’s principled steps to pressure Russia for the sake of peace.”
Ukraine’s domestic security agency has detained an air force officer on charges of having spied for Russia by leaking the location of prized F-16 and Mirage 2000 fighter jets, officials said yesterday.
The unidentified officer, a flight instructor holding the rank of major, stands accused of helping Russia carry out air strikes by providing coordinates and suggesting strike tactics, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement.
“In particular, the enemy’s priority targets were airfields where F-16s, Mirage 2000s and Su-24s were based,” it said. F-16s are U.S.-made and Mirages are French while the Su-24 is an older, Soviet-manufactured jet bomber.
“The agent collected the coordinates of the location of these aircraft, schedules and… the order of their departure.”
The SBU said the suspect had also passed data on Ukrainian air force personnel and combat tactics to Russian military intelligence.
Russia has now acquired immunity to sanctions from the West thanks to long experience, the Kremlin said yesterday, adding that it continues to monitor statements by US president Donald Trump regarding sanctions against Moscow.
“We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Therefore, of course, we have already developed a certain immunity in this regard, and we continue to note all statements that come from president Trump, from other international representatives on this matter,” the aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin said.
Mr Trump on Tuesday said that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia in 10 days if Moscow showed no progress towards ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine.
Russia doubled down on its defensive stance against the upcoming sanctions and said that the West seems to be stuck in a pattern.
“We see that the West simply cannot let go of the issue of sanctions. It seems as if they are constantly stuck in a rut,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow yesterday.
“Apparently, there are no other options left – they have been exhausted. We are responding and taking measures to counteract all of this or even turn it to our own advantage,” she said.
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