The Kremlin announced on Monday that Russia and the United States are working on a possible peace agreement in Ukraine, as well as on building bilateral relations, despite US President Donald Trump stating that he is “very angry” with Vladimir Putin – Reuters reported.
Trump told NBC News that he was greatly angered when the Russian leader questioned the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the American president raised the possibility of introducing secondary tariffs of 25-50 percent on buyers of Russian oil.
“If I cannot reach an agreement with Russia to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine, then I will impose secondary tariffs on all Russian oil,” Trump said. “This would mean that if someone buys Russian oil, they cannot do business with the United States, there will be a 25-50 percent tariff on all oil,” Trump said. In response to his statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declared that Moscow continues to cooperate with Washington, and Putin remains open to maintaining contact with the American president.
“We continue to work with the American side, primarily on restoring our bilateral relations, which were severely damaged under the previous US administration,” Peskov said. “We are also working on the implementation of some ideas related to resolving the Ukrainian conflict. This work is ongoing, but there are no concrete details yet that we can disclose. This is a time-consuming process, probably due to its complexity.”
Peskov added that if necessary, a phone call between Trump and Putin can be arranged at short notice, although no such call is planned for this week. Trump, who wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly emphasised that he wishes to put an end to the three-year-long conflict in Ukraine, and has warned of the risks that the conflict could escalate into a world war between the United States and Russia.
