Donald Trump has again threatened to impose "massive sanctions or massive tariffs" on Russia if there is no progress towards a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, expressing frustration a week after his summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The US president said he was unhappy about a Russian strike on an American factory in Ukraine this week, which caused a fire and injured employees. "I'm going to make a decision as to what we do and it's going to be a very important decision," Trump told reporters.
Despite Trump's earlier declaration of a diplomatic breakthrough, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC that no meeting between Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is planned. Lavrov said Putin is "ready to meet with Zelenskyy when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all."
Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to wriggle out of a meeting, saying Moscow wants to continue the offensive. He has dropped his demand for a lengthy ceasefire as a prerequisite but previously stated Ukraine cannot negotiate under the barrel of a gun.
Putin, during a visit to a nuclear research centre, said there was "light at the end of the tunnel" for US-Russia relations and that next steps depend on US leadership. However, fighting continues unabated, with analysts estimating over a million soldiers killed or wounded since the 2022 invasion.
