US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened new sanctions and tariffs on Russia over its bombardments of Ukraine, after previously suspending US aid to Kyiv in a stated bid to encourage diplomacy.

But in comments later Friday, he said it was “easier” to work with Russia than Ukraine in efforts to end the war.

Trump’s warning to Moscow, published on his Truth Social platform, came hours after Russia launched a “massive” drone and missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities Friday.

“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” he added.

Kevin Hassett, director of the president’s National Economic Council echoed this message in comments to reporters on Friday.

“President Trump is adamant that we need to get everybody to the table, and we could do that with carrots, and we can do that with sticks,” he said.

Talking to reporters Friday after his post online, Trump said he trusted Putin. “I believe him,” he said.

“I’m finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine and they don’t have the cards,” he said. “It may be easier dealing with Russia.”

– ‘Force Russia to stop’ –

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet US officials in Saudi Arabia next week for a fresh round of talks.

“The theme is clear: peace as soon as possible, security as reliable as possible,” he said in his evening address Friday.

“Ukraine is determined to be very constructive.”

Earlier on Friday, he renewed calls for a mutual halt to aerial attacks on critical infrastructure following the latest Russian barrage.

The Ukrainian leader said the first steps to establishing real peace should be stopping both Russian and Ukrainian aerial and naval attacks.

This latest proposal builds on growing rhetoric from Kyiv, Washington and Moscow on halting the war, now in its fourth year.

Ukraine’s allies abroad have voiced support for Zelensky’s truce proposal and on Friday Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who recently hosted the Ukrainian leader, also gave it his backing.

The Kremlin has previously ruled out a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine.

– Air and sea truce –

Russia’s defence ministry confirmed Friday it had carried out “precision” strikes on energy facilities.

The Ukrainian air force said it had deployed French Mirage fighter jets — delivered to Ukraine last month — for the first time to repel the aerial onslaught.

They said the fighter jets along with air-defence units shot down 34 of the missiles and 100 drones.

DTEK, the largest private energy supplier in Ukraine, said its facilities in the Black Sea region of Odesa had been targeted for a fourth successive night.

Its gas facilities in the central Poltava region had “ceased operations” after being struck in the overnight attack, it added.

State gas company Naftogaz said its production facilities had been damaged, and the authorities in at least five Ukrainian regions said Russia had targeted energy facilities.

The latest Russian air assault came after EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, agreed to boost the bloc’s defences.

– US, Ukrainian officials to meet –

EU chiefs on Friday briefed several NATO partners — including Britain and Turkey — about the outcome of a meeting on defence of the bloc’s leaders in Brussels a day earlier.

“Our cooperation with likeminded NATO partners is vital for international security. For Ukraine. For stepping up our joint efforts on defence,” Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council of EU states, said in a post on X.

Washington said talks with Kyiv were back on track to secure a ceasefire with Moscow — after a public falling out between Trump and Zelensky last Friday.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meetings with US officials, Zelensky himself will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said he would speak to Ukrainian negotiators about an “initial ceasefire” with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement.

Ukraine’s energy minister German Galushchenko said Russia was trying to “hurt ordinary Ukrainians by shelling energy and gas production facilities”.

Five civilians were killed and nine wounded in Russian strikes in the Donetsk region, the prosecutor’s office there announced Friday.

Eight people were wounded in a strike on Kharkiv Friday, city officials said.

European countries are uncertain about how to bring an end to the three-year Russia-Ukraine war, President Donald Trump said on Friday.

Taking questions at the Oval Office of the White House, the President reiterated his warning that the war could “end in World War III if we don’t settle.”

When asked why he believes no European country has proposed a peace deal, apart from U.S. intervention, Trump insisted that only he could bring the conflict to an end.

“They’re in a very unusual position; they don’t know how to end the war,” the President stated. “I think I do know how to end the war.”

Trump said that despite the “Russia hoax,” he has always maintained a good relationship with President Vladimir Putin, whom he believes wants to end the conflict.

“I think he’s going to be more generous than he has to be, and that’s pretty good. That means a lot of good things,” he emphasised.

The President added that if the war had never started, “you could have made a good deal” that might not have required Ukraine to give anything up.

Trump also confirmed that he was “finding it hard to deal with Ukraine, and they don’t have the cards,” but suggested it “might be easier” to negotiate with Russia “with the cards.”

The European Union on Thursday announced that Ukraine will receive $33 billion in fresh aid. The money would be taken from sanctioned Russian assets, according to President Emmanuel Macron.

A divided US Supreme Court handed a legal defeat to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, rejecting his bid to freeze some $2 billion in foreign aid payments.

The top court, in its first significant ruling on a legal challenge to the Trump administration, voted 5-4 to uphold a lower court order requiring that payments be made on aid contracts that have already been completed.

The justices said the federal judge who ordered the resumption of payments for contracts with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department “should clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill.”

Conservatives John Roberts, the chief justice, and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, voted with the three liberals on the nine-member Supreme Court.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissent that was joined by the three other conservatives.

“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito wrote.

“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned,” he added.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has backed several legal challenges to moves by the Trump administration, welcomed the Supreme Court decision.

“President Trump’s attempt to halt foreign aid funding was a reckless, cruel, and unprecedented abuse of executive power,” ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

“The lower court rightly held that President Trump exceeded his authority when he unilaterally declared he was freezing funding for programs Congress had already authorized, stiffing federal contractors who had already done work,” Romero said.

District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, issued a temporary restraining order last month prohibiting the administration from “suspending, pausing, or otherwise preventing” foreign assistance funds.

Trump has launched a campaign led by his top donor Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government.

The most concentrated fire has been on USAID, the primary organization for distributing US humanitarian aid around the world with health and emergency programs in some 120 countries.

Trump has said USAID was “run by radical lunatics” and Musk has described it as a “criminal organization” needing to be put “through the woodchipper.”

AFP