{"id":420298,"date":"2025-03-04T15:01:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T14:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/04\/trump-stop-aiuti-kiev-sanzioni-mosca\/"},"modified":"2025-03-04T16:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T15:46:18","slug":"trump-suspends-aid-to-kyiv-prepares-to-ease-sanctions-against-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/04\/trump-suspends-aid-to-kyiv-prepares-to-ease-sanctions-against-moscow\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump suspends aid to Kyiv, prepares to ease sanctions against Moscow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – The moment everyone feared, especially in Kyiv, has arrived. Donald Trump<\/strong> has suspended military aid for Ukraine<\/strong>, in what many interpreted as a move to induce Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong> to accept Washington’s conditions for the\u00a0agreement on critical raw materials<\/strong> and, more generally, to follow the White House’s initiative on peace negotiations<\/strong> with Russia, which, in the near future, could see some sanctions<\/strong> being eased by the very stars and stripes administration.<\/p>\n

Taps turned off (for now)<\/h3>\n

With a snap of the fingers, a major portion of the flow of military aid that had been supporting the Ukrainian resistance for the past three years has been halted. The stop applies to all U.S. military equipment and munitions not yet physically in Ukraine<\/strong>, including those in transit.<\/p>\n

The suspension\u00a0seems temporary<\/a> for now.\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0is waiting to hear whether the Ukrainian leadership, starting with his counterpart\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>, wants to commit “in good faith” to peace. That is, to the peace ventilated by the U.S. president, which should include Washington’s exploitation of Kyiv’s\u00a0mineral resources<\/strong>\u00a0but\u00a0no guarantee of military security<\/strong>, at least not from the Pentagon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Volodymyr<\/a>
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (photo: Sergei Supinsky\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Commenting on the Ukrainian president’s remark that an end to hostilities with Russia is still “a long way off,” the tycoon lamented that “this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s support<\/strong>.” The administration announced that aid to the former Soviet republic is being rescheduled “to ensure that\u00a0they contribute to a solution” to the conflict<\/strong>\u00a0rather than prolonging it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Means of pressure?<\/h3>\n

Ukrainians and their Western allies (those who remain) have been waiting in terror for this moment since last Friday’s\u00a0diplomatic catastrophe<\/a>. That is, since the White House tenant and his number two,\u00a0JD Vance<\/strong>, finally threw off the mask\u00a0by ambushing Zelensky\u00a0<\/strong>and bullying and berating him for trying to ensure his country’s survival.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a few days, it seemed that Washington and Kyiv could still re-establish their relationship. Over the weekend, Trump and Zelensky reiterated that\u00a0the agreement was in the interests of both the United States and Ukraine<\/strong>. The US administration’s decision to turn off the taps could be a move to\u00a0put pressure on the Ukrainian government<\/strong>, forcing it to enter into the minerals and hydrocarbons pact\u2014perhaps with new terms, even more advantageous to Washington\u2014without making further demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Zelensky<\/a>
U.S. President Donald Trump (right) welcomes his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption>
<\/figcaption>
\n

According to Trump, Zelensky “should be more grateful, because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin.” “It shouldn’t be such a difficult deal to make<\/strong>,” argued the tycoon<\/a>, adding, “if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long.” A veiled plea for regime change in Kyiv?<\/p>\n

Many, starting with NATO chief\u00a0<\/span>Mark Rutte<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>are urging<\/a>\u00a0the Ukrainian president to publicly apologise for daring to respond to the false accusations made against him on world television, to\u00a0<\/span>reconcile relations with the U.S. administration<\/strong>\u00a0as soon as possible.<\/span>\u00a0Behind the scenes, European bridgebuilders, Giorgia Meloni<\/strong> and Keir Starmer<\/strong> in the lead, are feverishly at work to mend the rift and restore transatlantic relations<\/strong> disrupted by the first month of the Trump bis.<\/p>\n

Ease\u00a0sanctions<\/h3>\n

But it does not end there. At the same time, Trump is reportedly aiming\u00a0to\u00a0suspend<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0some of the sanctions<\/strong> that his predecessors Joe Biden<\/strong> and Barack Obama<\/strong> had imposed against Russia<\/strong> (illegal Russian actions in Ukraine began in 2014, during Obama’s second term, with the unilateral annexation of Crimea and support for Donbas separatists).<\/p>\n

\"Putin\"<\/a> Russian President Vladimir Putin (photo: Sergei Ilnitsky\/Afp)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After threatening his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin<\/strong> with increased sanctions<\/strong> if he did not agree to sit at the negotiating table to stop the conflict in the former Soviet republic, the U.S. president has changed his approach and now seems to prefer the carrot to the stick<\/strong>. He still uses the stick: but with Kyiv, rather than Moscow.<\/p>\n

For its part, Moscow has already opened up to economic cooperation with the post-Biden United States.\u00a0Recently, it\u00a0even offered Washington a\u00a0collaboration on extracting rare earths<\/strong>\u00a0from its deposits<\/span>\u00a0after the sinking of the agreement with Ukraine. As\u00a0Kremlin spokesman\u00a0Dmitri Peskov stressed<\/strong><\/span>, the new star-studded foreign policy “is largely aligned with our vision” of the world. No less.<\/p>\n

Hiding the\u00a0heads in the sand<\/h3>\n

No major news seems to be on the horizon on this side of the Atlantic, despite the speed and depth of these changes. The maxi-package of \u20ac20 billion<\/strong> in military aid advocated for in recent days<\/a>\u00a0by the EU High Representative Kaja Kallas<\/strong> has disappeared from the radar and will not be discussed at the extraordinary European Council<\/strong> scheduled for the day after tomorrow (March 6), where nevertheless\u00a0the leaders of the Twenty-Seven will discuss defence and Ukraine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

We are living in dangerous times.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2018s security is threatened in a very real way.<\/p>\n

Today I present ReArm Europe.<\/p>\n

A plan for a safer and more resilient Europe \u2193 https:\/\/t.co\/CYTytB5ZMk<\/a><\/p>\n

– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The chairwoman of the EU executive,\u00a0Ursula von der Leyen,<\/strong>\u00a0unveiled just this morning<\/a>\u00a0an\u00a0800 billion plan to rearm the Old Continent. <\/strong>However, member states will use this money for their own armed forces. For Kyiv, at least for now, nothing is on the table. This is yet another victory for Hungarian Prime Minister\u00a0Viktor Orb\u00e1n,<\/strong>\u00a0who, with his Slovak colleague\u00a0Robert Fico<\/strong>, has always put a spoke in Brussels’ wheels whenever it tried to\u00a0support Ukrainian resistance<\/strong>\u00a0to Russian aggression.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The White House’s decision throws Ukraine and its allies into disarray as they try to mend fences and patch things up. As it cuts off arms and ammunition supplies to the former Soviet republic, Washington considers easing restrictive measures against the Kremlin to bring it to the negotiating table<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":420287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[28233,26411,25802,26458,26042,28370,30548],"class_list":["post-420298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-aid-military-en","tag-ukraine-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420298"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420322,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420298\/revisions\/420322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

The White House\u00a0has instructed\u00a0<\/a>the State and Treasury Departments to draw up\u00a0a list of restrictive measures that could be eased. <\/strong>This\u00a0is a tangible sign of goodwill on Washington’s part toward Moscow, as part of the\u00a0distancing of relations between the two global superpowers<\/strong>\u00a0that followed the tycoon’s inauguration. It is not yet clear what areas might be affected by the revision of the U.S. sanctions regime, but many of the\u00a0oligarchs close to the Kremlin<\/strong>\u00a0as well as the\u00a0oil production of the Federation<\/strong>\u00a0could be involved.<\/span><\/p>\n