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Russia dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest comments about additional sanctions over the war in Ukraine, stating they “have no effect whatsoever” and are “absolutely useless.”
On Sunday, September 7, Trump told reporters he is prepared to move to the next phase of sanctions against Russia if it does not make peace with Ukraine soon. He had previously threatened secondary tariffs and other sanctions.
Since then, the war has continued. Over the weekend, Moscow launched its largest aerial attack yet, damaging a Ukrainian government building for cabinet ministers for the first time in such an attack.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, blamed Kyiv and its European allies for keeping sanctions at the forefront of Washington’s agenda.
“Over the past almost four years, the unprecedented number of sanctions imposed on our country have had no effect whatsoever,” Peskov said, originally in Russian. This statement was posted to Telegram on Monday morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for deeper and more punishing U.S. sanctions against Russia, arguing that Putin will only make peace if pressured externally.
For months, Trump sought a peaceful resolution in Ukraine but has seen fighting intensify. In August, he met with Putin in Alaska, hoping to break the deadlock, though fighting continued.
Since February 2022, Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory following its full-scale invasion. Prior to that, Russia had invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014 and annexed Crimea.
The Kremlin cites Ukraine’s moves towards NATO membership—a red line for Russian national security—as the main “root causes” of its invasion, along with what it claims is persecution of ethnic Russians there.
Kyiv denies mistreating its ethnic Russian population and argues that as a sovereign country, it should be free to join alliances like NATO. Ukraine accuses Russia of an imperial war of conquest aiming to erase Ukrainian sovereignty and identity.
This is a breaking news story. Updates will follow.
