Author: Sarah Shamim
Published on: 11/07/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a second time in two days on Friday. They had met for 50 minutes on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Malaysia on Thursday. Donald Trump had promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office. But more than four months later, the prospects of a ceasefire appear as remote as ever. Trump announced a decision to “pause” arms supply to Kyiv in early July. On Thursday, Trump told NBC that these weapons would be sold to NATO, which will pay fully for them. NATO will then pass them on to Ukraine. Conservative social media duo Keith and Kevin Hodge wrote on X on July 8: “Who in the hell is telling Trump that we need to send more weapons to Ukraine?” Sanctioning Russia Since the war in Ukraine started in 2022, the US and its allies have imposed at least 21,692 sanctions on Russian individuals, media organisations, and institutions across sectors such as the military, energy, aviation, shipbuilding and telecommunications. In recent months, Zelenskyy has repeatedly requested his allies in the West Turkiye also imports Russian oil, with as much as 58 percent of its refined petroleum imports sourced from Russia in 2023. In 2024, European countries paid more than $700m to buy Russian uranium products, according to an analysis by Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. "If a new sanctions bill does pass, and the United States does impose costs on Moscow for the first time during the current administration," Giles said. “I think it’s a new and a different approach,” Rubio said. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the US and Russia had a “substantial and frank exchange of views on the settlement in Ukraine”
Original: 1430 words
Summary: 291 words
Percent reduction: 79.65%