The Kremlin on Thursday said that Russia did not believe that peace talks with Ukraine were stalled despite Trump’s professed disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the resumption of the US-supplied weapons to Ukraine.
Trump said on July 8 that he was not happy with Putin and accused the Kremlin of throwing 'a lot of bullshit'. The United States is delivering artillery shells and mobile rocket artillery missiles to Ukraine, claimed two U.S. officials, according to Reuters.
Remarking on the continuing aggression in Ukraine, Trump said, "We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin ... He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now."
Trump, who said he wanted to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly called for an end to the "bloodbath" of Ukraine, which his administration has cast as a proxy war between the United States and Russia.
In response to Trump's comments, a senior Russian diplomat said on Thursday that the Trump administration's contradictory actions and words made it difficult, though Moscow was dedicated to working on improving ties with Washington.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said to the Russian TASS news agency, "The Trump administration is very contradictory in its actions and statements. This does not make the work easy."
According to Reuters, he added, "Nevertheless, we are persistently and consistently pursuing a course towards normalising our relations."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also denied that the peace talks had been stalled due to the comments of Trump, according to The Hindu.
Peskov said Russia was waiting for a signal from Kyiv on whether or not it would join a third round of talks, which first kicked off in May in Istanbul. “We are taking this calmly,” Peskov said. "We expect to continue our dialogue with Washington and our effort to repair our seriously broken bilateral relations."
"We have repeatedly said that it would be preferable for us to achieve our goals through peaceful political and diplomatic means, but as long as this does not happen, a special military operation continues, and the reality on the ground is changing every day," Peskov added.
Sanctions To Be Levied
On July 9, Trump said he was considering supporting a bill in the Senate that would impose steep sanctions on Russia over the war.
The bill, whose lead sponsors are Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, would also punish other countries that trade with Moscow, imposing 500% tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports, reported Reuters.
Ryabkov retaliated, "We know how to resist sanctions. We see that in recent years we have developed tools and schemes that make it possible, by and large, to fill certain needs to a large extent through import substitution."
Putin May Not Want Peace
The New York Times held conversations with anonymous members and analysts close to the Kremlin about the proposed peace talks.
They report, Putin is brushing aside Trump’s professed disappointment in him and is pushing ahead in Ukraine with renewed intensity, having already priced in the possibility of new U.S. pressure.
Putin believes that Russia’s battlefield superiority is growing, and that Ukraine’s defenses may collapse in the coming months. Given Russia’s ongoing offensive, NYT reports, Putin views it as out of the question to halt the fighting now without extensive concessions by Ukraine.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said, “He will not sacrifice his goals in Ukraine for the sake of improving relations with Trump.”
