𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Donald Trump has said declining energy prices could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt the war in Ukraine.

“If energy goes down enough, Putin is going to stop killing people,” Trump said in an interview on CNBC.

“If you get energy down, another $10 a barrel, he’s going to have no choice because his economy stinks.”

Vladimir Putin is unlikely to bow to a sanctions ultimatum expiring this Friday from Donald Trump, sources close to the Kremlin have said.

The US president has threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100 per cent tariffs on countries that buy its oil, of which the biggest are China and India, unless Putin agrees to a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Putin’s goal is to fully capture the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which Russia has claimed as its own, and then to talk about a peace agreement, a source told news agency Reuters.

The Russian leader does not want to anger Trump, and he realises that he may be spurning a chance to improve relations with Washington and the West, but his war goals take precedence, the sources said.

Moscow’s stated demands include a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions and acceptance by Kyiv of neutral status and limits on the size of its military – demands rejected by Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to visit Moscow on Wednesday in an attempt to convince Mr Putin to sign a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine.

The Netherlands will contribute €500mn (£434mn) to purchase US military equipment for Ukraine, becoming the first Nato member to support a new mechanism aimed at supplying American weapons to Kyiv.

Donald Trump said last month that the US would provide weapons to Ukraine, paid for by European allies, but he did not provide details on how this would work.

Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans announced on Monday that the Netherlands will contribute €500mn to the mechanism called the Nato Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative.

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Russia accused the United States of exerting illegal trade pressure on India after Donald Trump threatened again to raise tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.

“We hear many statements that are in fact threats, attempts to force countries to cut trade relations with Russia. We do not consider such statements to be legal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

“We believe that sovereign countries should have and do have the right to choose their own trading partners, partners for trade and economic cooperation, and to choose for themselves the forms of trade and economic cooperation that are in the interests of a particular country.”

Mr Trump has said that from Friday, he will impose new sanctions on Russia as well as on countries that buy its energy exports, unless Moscow takes steps to end its war with Ukraine.

New Delhi has called Trump’s threats “unjustified” and vowed to protect its economic interests, deepening a trade rift between the two major economies.

The Kremlin has said that Russia no longer has any restrictions on where it places its intermediate-range missiles, the day after Moscow said it would withdraw from what it called a self-imposed moratorium on their deployment.

The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, which banned the use of short-range and medium-range missiles, in 2019, citing Russian non-compliance.

Russia has since said it would not deploy such weapons provided that Washington did not do so.

Russian forces have captured the village of Sichneve in Ukraine’s east-central Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian defence ministry said.

The Independent could not confirm the battlefield report.

Russia says its forces have seized full control of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine after nearly 16 months of fierce fighting, a claim Kyiv has dismissed as “propaganda.”

So why does this small town matter?

Chasiv Yar, whose name means “Quiet Ravine,” had a pre-war population of around 12,000. Perched on higher ground in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, it once served as a regrouping point and artillery base for Ukrainian forces.

Its elevated terrain, reinforced concrete factory and dense apartment blocks made it one of Ukraine’s best defended positions.

For Moscow, taking Chasiv Yar would remove an obstacle to advancing westwards towards key “fortress cities” in the Donbas, including Kostiantynivka, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.

Russian analysts say it could also be used to target Ukrainian forces in northern Donetsk and disrupt their supply lines.

The battle for Chasiv Yar has been among the longest and bloodiest of the war. Russia’s defence ministry claims its paratroopers cleared over 4,200 buildings under heavy Ukrainian fire, though this has not been independently verified.

Yet Ukrainian analysts have downplayed the town’s importance, arguing Russia has paid a heavy price for limited gains.

Some Russian commentators also call it a tactical rather than strategic victory, pointing to the slow pace of Moscow’s advance.

Today, Chasiv Yar lies largely in ruins after months of shelling and airstrikes. Most residents fled long ago. Only a few hundred remained last year, sheltering in basements as utilities collapsed.