Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday hit out at the decision of the US President Donald Trump to block sanctions on Russia claiming the move rewarded the country’s leader Vladimir Putin.
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Trump signed an executive order that waived US sanctions aimed at reducing the money Russia receives from the sale of its oil and gas.
The move came despite Russia increasing strikes on Ukraine and days before the measures were to take effect under a law Trump signed last month.
Trump said the waiver was in the national interests of the US.
Targeting Russia’s oil and gas sectors
The Lindsey Graham Act – named after the deceased US senator who sponsored the bill – targeted Russia’s energy and defence sectors, as well as Putin and the so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions.
“It is important that everyone in America also sees what is really happening,” Zelensky wrote on social media after he said that Russian forces had attacked 15 critical power generation facilities across Ukraine.
“A US sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin – all of this only encourages him to keep attacking,” he warned.
Russia hails Trump move as ‘historic’
The Kremlin and Putin have not yet officially reacted but several Russian officials celebrated the Trump’s move.
“The Trump administration’s suspension of the Graham Act is an important and truly historic moment,” Kirill Dmitriev, a Putin envoy, said on social media.
Dmitriev said the act would have caused serious damage first and foremost to the US economy and global markets.
Trump’s waiver comes after he struck a deal with Putin to ease existing sanctions on Russia in exchange for Moscow releasing large amounts of diesel onto global markets.
US-led talks to end the war in Ukraine have not brought a breakthrough. Both Putin and Zelensky have frustrated Trump in the past with a lack of progress in halting a conflict which started in February 2022.
Zelensky had rallied his allies Friday during a visit to Brussels for a European Union summit.
He urged them to keep financing Ukraine’s fight and insisted he was standing up for his country amid the row with Trump.
“This is no time to withdraw the support to Ukraine,” said European Council chief Antonio Costa.
“Now it is time to increase our support, to increase our pressure.”
Putin vows more
Ukraine has been struggling to shoot down Russian missiles and has been left scrambling to boost its defences.
Russia controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine and Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine by force.
“On the whole I see a positive trend in the operations of the troop groupings,” Putin told army leaders on Friday.
“Undoubtedly, one of the main objectives remains the liberation of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he added, using the Kremlin’s name for the eastern Donetsk region.
(With newswires)
