US President Donald Trump has declared he is ready to move ahead with a new round of sanctions against Russia after it pommeled Ukraine with its largest air strike since the war began.
Mr Trump, asked by reporters on Sunday whether he is ready to move to the “second stage” of sanctions against Russia, replied ”yeah, I am”. He did not provide any further details.
Earlier, his US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Washington was prepared to increase pressure on Russia by slapping tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil.
“The Russian economy will be in full collapse. And that will bring President (Vladimir) Putin to the table,” Mr Bessent told NBC television.
Before his summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month in Alaska, Mr Trump had threatened to impose a suite of blistering fresh sanctions and tariffs targeting countries that import Russian oil.
The move is intended to damage a critical revenue source that the Russians have used to keep their economy afloat from Western sanctions over the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.
Mr Trump left the meeting with Mr Putin sounding optimistic about a path toward brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine. But in the time since, Russia has continued to hammer Ukraine, including on Sunday.
Russia fired its biggest-ever aerial barrage at Ukraine early Sunday, killing four people and setting government offices in Kyiv ablaze, an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky warned would prolong the war.
Hours later, Mr Trump - who has been trying to broker a peace deal ending the war - said he was ready to impose more sanctions on Russia.
Russia has intensified its onslaught against Ukraine since Mr Putin met Mr Trump in Alaska on August 15 in a summit that failed to yield any ceasefire breakthrough.
After Sunday’s attack on Kyiv, flames could be seen rising from the roof of the sprawling government complex that houses Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers in the heart of the city - the first time it has been hit during the three-and-a-half-year conflict.
Drone strikes also damaged several high-rise buildings in the Ukrainian capital, according to emergency services.
Russia denies targeting civilians in Ukraine.
It said it struck a plant and a logistics hub in Kyiv, with the Russian defence ministry saying “no strikes were carried out on other targets within the boundaries of Kyiv”.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted a video showing a damaged floor in the government building.
“We will restore the buildings,” she said. “But we cannot bring back lost lives. The enemy terrorises and kills our people every day throughout the country.”
‘Deliberate crime’
Russia fired at least 810 drones and 13 missiles at Ukraine between late Saturday and early Sunday in a new record, according to the Ukrainian air force.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have already begun long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Mr Zelensky said.
He discussed the attack in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron and said France would help Ukraine strengthen its defence.
Mr Macron was among European leaders who condemned the attack, posting on X that Russia was “locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror”.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the attacks as “cowardly” while EU chief Ursula von der Leyen accused the Kremlin of “mocking diplomacy”.
