Trump: Russia wants to end war with Ukraine but could be dragging its feet

US President Donald Trump said in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday that he thought Russia wanted to end its war with Ukraine but acknowledged that Moscow could be dragging its feet.

“I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they’re dragging their feet. I’ve done it over the years,” he said.

His comments come as the US reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to pause their attacks at sea and against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.

While it was not clear when or how the Black Sea maritime security deals would start, the agreements are the first formal commitments by the two warring sides since the inauguration of Trump, who is pushing for an end to the war in Ukraine and a rapid rapprochement with Moscow that has alarmed Kyiv and European countries.

The US agreement with Russia goes further than the agreement with Ukraine, with Washington committing to help seek the lifting of international sanctions on Russian agriculture and fertiliser exports, long a Russian demand.

Shortly after the US announcements, the Kremlin said the Black Sea agreements would not come into effect unless links between some Russian banks and the international financial system were restored.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his understanding was that the truce agreements did not require sanctions relief to come into force and would take effect immediately, calling the Kremlin’s statement an attempt to “manipulate” the deals.

“They are already trying to distort agreements and, in fact, deceive both our intermediaries and the entire world,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

Kyiv and Moscow both said they would rely on Washington to enforce the deals, while expressing skepticisms that the other side would abide by them.

“We will need clear guarantees,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “And given the sad experience of agreements with just Kyiv, the guarantees can only be the result of an order from Washington to Zelenskiy and his team to do one thing and not the other.”

Zelenskyy said if Russia violated them he would ask Trump to impose additional sanctions on Moscow and provide more weapons for Ukraine.

“We have no faith in the Russians, but we will be constructive,” he said.

In the hours following the announcements, both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of launching drone attacks, but there were no immediate reports of hits on Black Sea or energy targets.