# Trump hints at financial repercussions if Russia rejects Ukraine ceasefire

US president’s comments come after Ukrainian counterpart said he believed ‘strong steps’ were under consideration

**Shaun Walker in Kyiv, Pjotr Sauer, Andrew Roth in Washington, and Dan Sabbagh in Paris**

Wed 12 Mar 2025 17.17 EDT

**First published on Wed 12 Mar 2025 08.37 EDT**





## Trump hints at financial repercussions if Russia rejects Ukraine ceasefire

US president’s comments come after Ukrainian counterpart said he believed ‘strong steps’ were under consideration.

Donald Trump has suggested he could target Russia financially as Ukraine’s president urged him to take strong steps if Moscow failed to support a 30-day ceasefire agreed at a  in Saudi Arabia.

The president’s threat came as the French defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told a press conference in Paris that a ceasefire announcement could come as soon as Thursday and that 15 countries were willing to contribute to a force of up to 30,000 personnel that would secure Ukraine’s airports, ports, and infrastructure on a permanent basis.

However, the ministers emphasised they still wanted the US to provide a backstop guarantee to support peacekeepers, and hinted that the minerals deal due to be signed by the US and Ukraine would be insufficient.

John Healey, the UK defence secretary, stressed that the UK wanted “the US to play a part in the reassurance force”. When asked whether a minerals deal could amount to a security guarantee for Ukraine, he said it was “a step towards a process where we get a ceasefire”, implying it was not necessarily sufficient.

Late on Wednesday, Russian state television showed Putin making his first visit to the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise incursion last year.



A still from a video released by the Kremlin shows Vladimir Putin with Russia’s chief of general staff, Valery Gerasimov, in a visit to the Kursk region. Photograph: Kremlin.ru/Reuters

Dressed in military camouflage, the Russian president expressed hope his army was on the brink of “fully liberating” the territory, and told senior commanders that Ukrainian soldiers captured in Kursk should be treated as terrorists.

“**I am counting on the fact that all the combat tasks facing our units will be fulfilled, and the territory of the Kursk region will soon be completely liberated from the enemy,”** he said. On Wednesday, Russian forces entered the central square of Sudzha, the largest Russian settlement controlled by Ukraine.

Minutes after footage of Putin’s remarks aired on Russian state TV, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, suggested his troops were pulling back to minimise losses.

Zelenskyy also appeared to hint at an organised withdrawal in his comments on Wednesday. “**The military command is doing what it should do – saving the maximum number of lives of our soldiers,**” he said.

Last month, , Zelenskyy said Ukraine hoped to swap the territory it held in Kursk region for areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia.



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