Ukraine-Russia latest: Moscow responds to Trump ultimatum as 1,000 North Koreans killed in Kursk
Russia has given its first response to Donald Trump’s ultimatum calling on Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks or see his Ukraine invasion end “the hard way”.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: “We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL.’”
The US president said he would be forced to put “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions” on anything sold by Russia if Putin refused to negotiate an end to his war.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said Moscow will have to see what Mr Trump thinks a “deal” to end the war in Ukraine means, and that the Kremlin sees it as a “question of addressing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis”.
This comes as Western officials said that North Korea has suffered nearly 40 per cent casualties among its forces fighting alongside Russia in the western Kursk region.
Out of the estimated 11,000 troops sent from North Korea, 4,000 were battle casualties in just three months of fighting – including at least 1,000 killed – the officials said on condition of anonymity.
