RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kremlin responds to Trump’s threat over Ukraine deal

The Kremlin has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s threats of sanctions and tariffs over a Ukraine peace deal, calling the tactics “nothing new.” Trump issued a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Moscow on Wednesday by calling on it to end the Ukraine conflict and strike a “deal”or to face new sanctions instead. 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia remains open to “equal and respectful dialogue” with the United States, adding that, during his first term in office, Trump had engaged in this kind of exchange with President Vladimir Putin. Now, Russia is waiting for similar signals but has not seen any so far, according to the spokesman.

“Trump in his first term was the US president most frequently resorting to sanctions. He likes this method,” Peskov added.

Trump issued the warning in a post on his Truth Social online platform. Should no peace “deal”materialize “soon” enough, Trump would “have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.” 

Addressing the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by videolink on Thursday, Trump has said he would “very much like” to meet his Russian counterpart “soon” to end the ongoing Ukraine conflict. 

Trump, who started his second term as president this week, campaigned on a promise to swiftly resolve the Ukraine conflict. He repeatedly promised to stop the fighting within 24 hours if returned to office. In the weeks leading up to his inauguration he adjusted his timeline, expressing hope to negotiate peace within six months. 

Russia has also repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that it is ready for peace negotiations at any time, while accusing Kiev of refusing to talk. Moscow has also repeatedly criticized the West’s continued military aid for Ukraine, arguing that it is only prolonging the conflict and extending human suffering. An ever deeper Western engagement in the conflict also poses risks of a direct clash between Russia and NATO, Moscow has warned.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow mayor says air defences repel Ukrainian drone attacks aimed at capital

Jan 24 (Reuters) - Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Friday that air defence units had intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations around the Russian capital.

Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said air defence units southeast of the capital in the Kolomna and Ramenskoye districts had repelled one group of "enemy" drones, without specifying how many were involved.

"At the site where fragments fell, no damage or casualties have occurred," Sobyanin wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without specifying how many drones were involved. "Specialist emergency crews are at the site."

The mayor posted three more announcements in quick succession.

Sobyanin said two drones also headed for Moscow had been downed by air defences in Podolsk district, south of the capital.

He then reported a single drone downed in Troitsky district, in the southwest of the capital and in Shchyolkovo, to the northeast.

Specialist emergency crews were dispatched to all the sites, Sobyanin said.

Russian news agencies quoted Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, as saying two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, were handling flights after suspending operations for a time. Six flights were redirected to other airports.

In the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, Regional Governor Pavel Markov said on Telegram that emergency services were tackling the aftermath of an air attack.

Markov said emergency crews had extinguished a fire after drone debris had damaged a house. Air defence units, he said, had destroyed drones in the region.

Unofficial Telegram channels posted videos of what bloggers described as large blazes in the city and said an oil storage depot and a power station had been hit.

Reuters could not independently confirm the reports that falling debris from a drone had damaged a private house.

The governor of the Tula region, also south of Moscow, said on Telegram that two drones had been "neutralised".

Russia's Defence Ministry had earlier said that it had destroyed 49 Ukrainian drones over a three-hour period late on Thursday, most of them over the Kursk region near the Ukrainian border.

The ministry, in a report on Telegram, said 37 drones had been destroyed solely in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold chunks of land after a mass incursion last August.

Unofficial Russian Telegram channels had reported a "large number" of drones over the Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.

Kursk Mayor Igor Kutsak said the attack had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one city district.

The ministry statement said drones had also been destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk and Belgorod and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

RT/Reuters