Trump calls out Russia for “dragging its feet” on ceasefire deal

President Trump acknowledged that his rapid drive to end the war in Ukraine had hit a snag, observing that Russia appeared to be slow-walking the US-brokered negotiations as it seeks more concessions from the West.

“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,” the president told cable channel Newsmax in an interview that aired Tuesday night.

Trump’s comments came only hours after Russia said it would only implement a US-brokered deal to stop using force in the Black Sea once some of the sanctions imposed on its banks and exports over its invasion of Ukraine are lifted.

Following days of separate negotiations with Ukrainian and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia, the White House said on Tuesday that the two sides had agreed “to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea.”

But while Zelensky confirmed in a news conference that Ukraine had agreed to stop using military force in the Black Sea, the Kremlin released its own statement on the talks, which included far-reaching conditions for signing up to the partial truce.

Those included lifting sanctions on its agricultural bank and other financial institutions and companies involved in exporting food and their re-connection to the SWIFT international payments system.The US statements made no mention of the sanctions being lifted as a precondition to the ceasefire.

Earlier this month, Ukraine agreed to a U.S.-proposed 30-day full ceasefire, while Russia refused to sign the deal after Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has emerged as a main conduit to Moscow, visited the Russian capital.

A Russia-Ukraine ceasefire deal has been on the verge of being realized for weeks now, so the question now becomes, are we at the absolute final hurdles before a deal gets done, or is Russia just going to look for excuses to never agree to a deal? With the Kremlin, anything is possible.