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Russia and North Korea only nations to not face US tariffs, while goods from Ukraine will face new 10% levy
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The White House has defended its decision to not include Russia on its expansive list of countries that will face major new tariffs starting today.
US sanctions on Moscow already “preclude any meaningful trade”, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios on Wednesday. At the same time, war-hit Ukraine is facing 10 per cent tariffs from the US administration.
It comes as Vladimir Putin’s top negotiator, Kirill Dmitriev, held meetings in Washington with US officials. After arrival, the Kyiv-born and US-educated envoy said that unnamed forces were trying to stir tension between Washington and Moscow
Meanwhile, Russian military bloggers have claimed that hundreds of Ukrainian troops have sought shelter from Moscow’s advancing forces in a Kursk monastery.
Moscow’s troops continue to wage fierce battles in the western Kursk region against Ukrainian forces, in a push to rout them from Kyiv’s last major foothold in the Russian territory seized last August.
Mash, a Telegram channel close to Russia’s security services, said more than 300 soldiers were hunkering down in the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsky monastery, as Kyiv looks to organise its defence on the highlands around Gornal.
Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has said the US aims to secure a full ceasefire in the ongoing war soon.
Talking to Fox News, Mr Kellogg said Ukraine and Russia are already approaching a point of ceasefire but both sides will need to make compromises.
“Neither side is going to get everything they want,” he said.
“I know [Trump’s] frustrated with both Zelensky and Putin as well, but we’re going to get there, and I think what you have to do is stay really on focus, on point, to get where you want to go with the ceasefire. Because what we want to have is a comprehensive 30-day ceasefire. Once you get there, it’s gonna be really hard to restart the war again. That’s what I believe,” Mr Kellogg told Fox News last night.
Russian forces in Ukraine continue to use ammunition equipped with chemical agents prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Ukrainian military has said.
Ukrainian forces recorded 767 cases in March of Russian forces using regulated K-51 and RG-VO grenade launchers to launch munitions containing chemical agents and ammunition containing unspecified hazardous chemicals that are banned under the CWC, the military said.
They also reported that Russian forces had used banned chemical agents a total of 7,730 times since February 2023.
Mark your calendars for 8am on 4 April as The Independent launches The Conversation, a new series where our top journalists sit down with world-leading experts to dissect the biggest issues shaping our times.
In the premier episode, world affairs editor Sam Kiley is joined by Alex Younger, the former chief of MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service, and leading security strategist Rachel Ellehuus, director-general of The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) and former Pentagon official with expertise in Nato and transatlantic defence.
At least 11 more Ukrainian children have been brought home from parts of Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine where they had been taken without permission, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said yesterday.
“Today we have one more piece of good news,” Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff, wrote on his Telegram channel.
“Within the framework of the president of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, another 11 Ukrainian children were brought back from temporarily occupied areas (of Ukraine) and the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said.
Among the children, Mr Yermak said, were brothers aged 10 and 12 whose father died after being tortured for expressing pro-Ukrainian views.
Also brought home, Mr Yermak wrote, was a pregnant mother who had been prevented from leaving occupied Ukraine because she had refused to take out Russian identity papers, and her two-year-old toddler.
The mother gave birth to another child in Ukrainian-held territory.
Mr Yermak thanked the office of Ukraine’s ombudsman for its help in arranging the return of the children.
Russia has not issued a statement on returning Ukrainian citizens.
Deputy Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Ihor Brusylo, spoke on national television to say they have handed evidence to the US about Russia violating a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“The energy ceasefire… which Ukraine and the United States agreed upon, was violated by the Russian side. All the necessary information was transferred to the American side. I think the reaction will not be long in coming, because even American partners who were diplomatically disposed towards the possibility of ensuring such a ceasefire are running out of patience,” he said.
According to the official, all evidence confirms that Russia is not interested in a ceasefire or in bringing the war to an end.
“I hope international partners will not delay anything, and more resolute measures will still be taken against the aggressor state, which pursues its insidious policy despite the agreements reached during the negotiations,” Brusylo stressed.
Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer who specializes in Russia’s war strategy, told Fox News that Putin’s goal with his latest conscription drive is to prolong the war.
“There’s no ceasefire and no peace plan between Russia and Ukraine to be had,” said Koffler, the author of a best-selling book “Putin’s Playbook.”
“What President Trump seeks is regretfully, unachievable. Putin’s goal is to keep fighting, in order to compel Ukraine to capitulate.
“Now that Germany and France are considering to deploy reassurance forces into Ukraine, Putin is factoring in those numbers, so he is increasing his force’s posture, to deter such a deployment or failing to prevent it by force.”
Russia has placed Elton John’s charity focussing on HIV/AIDS prevention on its list of “undesirable organisations”, the prosecutor general’s office said on Thursday.
The office derided what it described as the charity’s “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations”.
The Elton John AIDS Foundation, launched in 1992, works in over 90 countries “to increase access to health care, tackle LGBTQ+ stigma, and end AIDS”.
The foundation, established by the singer and songwriter, has previously clashed with Russian authorities over LGBTQ+ rights. Sir Elton, who has performed in Russia, has criticised what he views as discrimination against gay people by the Russian government.
In the statement by Russian prosecutors, they said the charity is “focused on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations, Western family models, and gender reassignment.”
Hundreds of Ukrainian troops have sought shelter in a monastery in Kursk, a Russian Telegram channel has claimed.
Moscow’s troops continue to wage fierce battles in the western Kursk region against Ukrainian forces, in a push to rout them from Kyiv’s last major foothold in the Russian territory seized last August, war bloggers have said.
Kyiv now just holds a narrow sliver of Kursk, Ukrainian battlefield map DeepState shows.
Mash, a Telegram channel close to Russia’s security services, said more than 300 soldiers were hunkering down in the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsky monastery, as Kyiv looks to organise its defence on the highlands around Gornal.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine and Reuters could not independently verify the reports. The monastery’s Telegram channel made no mention of military operations in the area.
Mash said there was an underground passage beneath the monastery “through which the Ukrainian Armed Forces are evacuating and delivering ammunition for long-term defence.”
The SHOT Telegram channel also said Ukraine was pulling reserves into Gornal via the monastery’s passageway.
Roman Alekhin, whose Telegram channel has over 180,000 subscribers, said Ukraine will try to hold onto the high ground around Gornal “with all their might, regardless of losses.”
Ukraine has denied Russian accusations of attacks on energy infrastructure, describing Moscow’s claims as false.
Russia’s defence ministry earlier. accused Ukraine of attacking Russian energy facilities four times in the past 24 hours despite a US-brokered halt on striking each other’s energy infrastructure.
But Kyiv said it’s troops have adhered to the ceasefire, accusing the Russian army of breaching it itself.
“At the same time, numerous violations of the agreements by the Russian army have been recorded,” Ukraine’s general staff said on Telegram.
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