Vladimir Putin defied Donald Trump’s threats over the Ukraine war as Russia launched nearly 100 drones to attack a southern city.
The new US president had publicly told the Russian president: “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
Trump argued he would do a very big favour to Russia and Putin by getting them to bring an end to “this ridiculous war” which he claimed was “destroying” Russia.
But the Kremlin said on Thursday it saw nothing particularly new in Trump’s threat to hit Russia with new sanctions and tariffs if it did not agree to end the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency."
Trump had often applied sanctions against Russia in his first term as president.
Peskov reiterated that Russia was ready for an equal and mutually respectful dialogue with the US.
But Britain says there is no evidence so far that Putin wants a peace deal to end the Ukraine invasion which he launched in February 2022.
Meanwhile, Russia unleashed a drone and missile strike on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing one, wounding 31 others and leaving tens of thousands without power or heat, officials said on Thursday.
The attack destroyed an energy facility and cut power to more than 20,000 residents and heat to some 17,000, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.
He said Russian forces struck the city with drones first, then with ballistic missiles during an air-raid alert lasting more than six hours.
Among the wounded was a two-month-old infant as well as rescuers who had responded to the first wave of the attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
Early on Thursday, police and rescue workers combed through the rubble of a decimated apartment building and helped evacuate elderly residents. One building was destroyed and another 30 were damaged, Mr Fedorov said.
Kyiv’s air force said Russia had fired four ballistic missiles at the city, part of a mass overnight attack on Ukraine that also included 92 drones.
Air defences shot down 57 and another 27 were “locationally lost”, it added.
Amid concerns that Trump could withdraw support for Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday called for the US to continue supplying Kyiv and said Europe would pay the bill.
Speaking at an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the NATO chief stressed that it was vital Russia did not win as it could result in Putin ‘high fiving’ the leaders of North Korea and China.
“We really have to step up and not scale back our support for Ukraine,” he added.
“The frontline is moving in the wrong direction.”
Russian forces are gradually seizing more territory in eastern Ukraine but also suffering heavy losses.
