President Donald Trump says he’s ready to punish Russia with a “second phase” of sanctions after it launched its largest-ever barrage of drone and missile strikes on Sunday, damaging a cabinet building and killing a mother and her baby.
“Yeah, I am,” Trump told a reporter, who asked whether he’s ready to move forward with more sanctions following months of failing to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease his military operations or meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump said he still has plans to chat with Putin “over the next couple of days” though it remains unclear what he hopes to get out of the latest conversation.
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“Look, we’re going to get it done,” he told reporters on Sunday. “The Russia-Ukraine situation. We’re going to get it done.”
Trump said he was “not thrilled” with Russia’s Sunday attack, which damaged the Cabinet of Ministers Building in Kyiv and killed four, including a mother and her baby, after 810 drones and 13 missiles were fired across Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said it neutralized 747 drones and four of the fired missiles.
“I am not thrilled with what’s happening there,” Trump said. “I believe we’re going to get it settled. But I am not happy with them. I’m not happy with anything having to do with that war.”
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The strike came just days after Putin alleged he was willing to meet with Zelenskyy so long as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Moscow – a move Western and Ukrainian officials alike said was not only a dangerous proposition for Zelenskyy, but lacked any real effort by Putin to engage in good faith negotiations to end the war.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that European leaders will also be heading to Washington D.C. this week to discuss next steps in ending the war, though he did not detail who will make the trip and whether Zelenskyy would be among them.
Putin said last month that his terms for ending the war would focus on freezing the front lines where they stand in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, but appeared to suggest that Ukraine would need to withdraw its forces from Donetsk and Luhansk, amid other stipulations.
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But on Monday, Ukraine’s military said it had recaptured the strategically important town of Zarichne in Donetsk – a region which Russia was assessed to occupy roughly 75% of last month.
Zarichne sits near Luhansk – a region which Russia is assessed to nearly fully occupy – and is near key transport routes connecting strategically important cities in Donetsk.
Ukraine last month also said it had made advances in areas near Pokrovsk in western Donetsk, where Russian forces have been concentrating their summer operation efforts.
Reuters contributed to this report.
