Kremlin responds to 'serious' Trump comments - after US gives Russia 50-day ultimatum
The Kremlin has responded to Donald Trump's "serious" comments threatening "severe sanctions" on Russia unless it agrees to a peace deal in Ukraine within 50 days.
'A lot of wiggle room' in 50 days
A 50-day period for Russia to reach a peace deal gives them "a lot of wiggle room", our security and defence analyst Michael Clarke says.
He notes that Trump hasn't taken any sanctions against Russia since he took office.
But his announcement to hit Russia with "severe tariffs" unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days will hit counties such as China and India.
"That's a serious issue," Clarke says.
He notes however that the 50-day period in which Russia has to come to the table "is an awful lot of wiggle room".
"It's a dual process, if these weapons start to arrive soon it could make a difference and give the Russians pause in their sense that they are winning on the ground," he says.
"If the 50 days turns out to be real and not just wiggle room that the Russians can play around with then the idea that Russia will be under pressure from China and India in particular to go in for a deal may be much greater."
Russia ready to negotiate after Trump statements
Further to our last post, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said that Moscow is ready to negotiate after Donald Trump threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports.
However, Ryabkov has also said Russia does not warm to ultimatums.
Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had a "very good conversation" with Trump and thanked him for the "willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings".
It came after Trump said he was "very unhappy" with Russia.
Kremlin: Trump's 'serious' comments on Russia require analysis
Donald Trump's recent statements on Russia, including a threat of "severe tariffs" on Moscow, are serious and require further analysis, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Trump yesterday announced new deliveries of weapons to Ukraine and warned that buyers of Russian exports could face sanctions unless Russia agrees to a peace deal on Ukraine.
Peskov said Vladimir Putin will only comment on the proposals if he deemed it necessary to do so.
On the fresh weapons deliveries to Kyiv, Peskov said: "Decisions which are being made in Washington, in NATO countries, and squarely in Brussels, are perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to continue the war."
He also reiterated that Russia was ready to continue direct negotiations with Ukraine and was still waiting for a signal from Kyiv on when the next round of peace talks could take place.
Trump 'asked Zelenskyy if Ukraine could bomb Moscow'
Donald Trump privately asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether Ukraine could strike Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons, the Financial Times reports.
The newspaper, citing two people familiar with the conversation between Trump and Zelenskyy, said the US president signalled his backing for the idea of Ukraine increasing attacks on Russia.
"Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? Can you hit St Petersburg too?" Trump asked on the call, according to the sources.
Zelenskyy replied: "Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons."
The conversation took place on 4 July and came a day after Trump's call with Putin, which the US president described as "bad".
As we have been reporting today, there has been a shift in Trump's tone when it comes to Russia.
He has announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees a peace deal.
Russian claims control of two villages in Donetsk region
The Russian defence ministry has said its troops have taken control of the villages of Voskresenka and Petrivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Sky News cannot independently verify this battlefield report.
Moscow currently holds slightly more than two-thirds of the Donetsk region, including the city of Donetsk itself and a large portion of the surrounding territory.
Russia has expressed hope that it can seize the entirety of Donetsk by the end of 2025, though military analysts believe this is not possible.
EU close to new sanctions package against Russia
EU countries are close to reaching an agreement on a new package of sanctions against Russia, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
"We hope to reach a political agreement on the 18th sanctions package. We are very, very close. I hope it comes today," Kallas said.
The European Commission last month proposed the 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, aimed at Moscow's energy revenue, its banks and its military industry.
The new package proposes banning transactions with Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, as well as banks that engage in sanctions circumvention.
Did Melania convince Trump to back Ukraine?
Ahead of making his "major announcement" on Russia yesterday, Donald Trump gave the world a rare insight into how his wife Melania likes to keep him informed of what's happening in Ukraine.
He told reporters: "We thought we had a deal numerous times. I get home, I tell the first lady, 'You know, I just had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir. I think we are finished'.
"And then she said to me one time, 'Well, that's strange because he just bombed a nursing home'."
But does this mean Melania Trump is now driving the president's policy on Ukraine now?
"Absolutely not," says US correspondent Mark Stone on the latest episode of the Trump 100 podcast. "But for me, it was an interesting glimpse into his evolving view on Ukraine."
Stone says it also raises the question as to why it takes Trump's wife to tell him what's on the news: "He should be across all that anyway!"
US correspondent James Matthews agrees, saying the moment "gave us a view into the home life."
"He comes home hard-pressed and exhausted from work," Matthews jokes.
"She's sitting on the sofa, curlers in, slippers on, watching the TV and updating him on the news, before he puts his slippers on and puts his curlers in."
Trump 'disappointed but not done' with Putin
Donald Trump says he's "disappointed" with Russian President Vladimir Putin but insists he's "not done" with him just yet,
In a phone interview with the BBC, the US leader expressed his anger at Russia's ongoing attacks across Ukraine, hampering Trump's efforts to secure peace.
Asked if he was now done with Putin, Trump said: "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him.
"I thought we had a deal done four times and then you go home and you see he just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv."
Trump was also pressed on how he would get Putin to "stop the bloodshed".
"We're working it," he said. "We'll have a great conversation. I'll say: 'That's good, I'll think we're close to getting it done,' and then he'll knock down a building in Kyiv."
Questioned on whether he trusted Putin, he said: "I trust almost nobody."
Is this a sea change in Trump's stance?
We don't yet know if Donald Trump's shift in stance on Russia is a sea change or "part of a whiplash effect", the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute says.
Speaking to Sky's Matt Barbet, Matthew Savill notes that the Russian economy has proved pretty resilient in the face of sanctions so far.
He says that Trump is suggesting secondary sanctions - meaning he will take action on countries that deal with Russia, such as those still buying Russian fossil fuels and energy supplies.
"We need to be a bit cautious as to whether this is a sea change in Trump's opinion or if it's just another part of a whiplash effect as he veers backwards and forwards," Savill says.
"His overriding goal is to get credit for ending the fighting."
Asked if the move will support Ukraine's defensive aims, he says there is a "lot we don't know" and it'll depend upon what is in the US weapons deal.
Savill says the sophisticated Patriot air defence systems are useful during missile attacks, but aren't so helpful against the "cheap but overwhelming" number of drones Russia launches.
He says Ukraine needs "cheaper, smaller air defence missiles" as well as other electronic warfare systems and their own longer-range weapons to strike Russian sites where drones are made.
Lavrov meets with China's Xi
Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Russian foreign ministry has said.
Lavrov is visiting China for a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) - a Eurasian political, economic and defence group with ten member states.
The Russian ministry said Lavrov offered Xi the "best wishes" of Vladimir Putin when the two met.
"The two sides discussed a number of issues concerning bilateral political contacts...including preparations for the Russian president's upcoming visit to the People's Republic of China."
Putin will travel to China in late August for another SCO summit, where he will hold talks with Xi and join ceremonies marking the anniversary of the victory in the Second World War.
China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022, days before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Medvedev dismisses Trump's 'theatrical ultimatum'
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow "didn't care" about the "theatrical ultimatum" Donald Trump issued to the Kremlin yesterday.
Trump threatened Russia with "severe tariffs" unless a peace deal with Ukraine was reached within 50 days (see 6.44 post).
What will Trump's weapons deal mean for the war?
Donald Trump has agreed to send "top of the line weapons" to NATO to support Ukraine - and threatened Russia with "severe" tariffs if it doesn't agree to peace in 50 days.
"This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, and that's going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield," the US president told reporters yesterday.
Russia says it destroyed 55 Ukrainian drones overnight
Several people have been injured and buildings damaged as a result of Ukraine's overnight drone attack on the southwestern Russian regions of Lipetsk and Voronezh, officials said.
Russia's air defence units destroyed 12 drones over the Voronezh region that borders Ukraine, governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
"Unfortunately, there were injuries," he said. "In central Voronezh, several people sustained minor injuries due to debris from a downed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles)."
In the city of Yelets in the Lipetsk region, a drone crashed in an industrial zone, regional governor Igor Artamonov said on Telegram.
"One person was injured and is receiving all necessary medical assistance," he added.
The Russian defence ministry said on Telegram that its units destroyed 55 Ukrainian drones overnight over five Russian regions and the Black Sea, including three over the Lipetsk region.
The full extent of damage from the attacks is not immediately known.
Trump threatens Russia with 'severe tariffs' if deal not reached in 50 days
We mentioned in our last post that Donald Trump threatened Russia with tariffs and announced a deal to boost weapons shipments heading to Ukraine.
These latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the US president, who once focused his criticism on Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he described as unwilling to compromise.
Here is what Trump said...
He said he would implement "severe tariffs" on Russia unless a peace deal was reached within 50 days.
He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia's trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.
"My conversations with him [Putin] are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night," Trump said.
He added: "We're going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don't have a deal in 50 days, it's very simple, and they'll be at 100%."
A White House official said Trump was referring to 100% tariffs on Russian goods as well as secondary sanctions on other countries that buy its exports.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram he had spoken to Trump and "thanked him for his readiness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace."
-SKY NEWS