Ukrainians welcome US aid but see Trump's 50-day ultimatum to Putin as too long
The time frame for further arms deliveries that European countries have agreed to pay for is crucial.
Russia is making a summer push to break through along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and its drones and missiles are hammering Ukrainian cities more than at any time in the past three years.
Ukrainian officials have made no direct comment about Trump's decision to allow Russia 50 days to reach a deal to end the war, or face what he said would be 'very severe' economic sanctions. While some believe strict tariffs on Moscow could be a game changer, the postponement until September struck others as being too long.
For Russia, Trump's delay of new sanctions is a reprieve. Senior Russian lawmaker Konstantin Kosachev commented: 'Oh, how much can change both on the battlefield and with the mood of those leading the U.S. and NATO in 50 days.'
Russian state television pointed out that Trump's decision would bring a bigger financial burden for Europe.
Russia currently holds about 20% of Ukraine. Ukraine's depleted army has recently been losing more territory, but there is no sign of a looming collapse on the front line, analysts say.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke to Trump after the Republican leader's Oval Office announcement Monday, expressing gratitude for the decision to send more Patriot air defense missiles that are vital to defend Ukrainian cities.
'We discussed … the necessary measures and decisions to provide greater protection for people from Russian attacks and strengthen our positions,' Zelenskyy said on Telegram. 'We agreed to talk more often and coordinate our steps in the future.'
Trump and Zelenskyy have had a notoriously fraught relationship, and Washington's consent to providing more weaponry has eased Kyiv's worries.
Even so, some Ukrainians felt the U.S. decision won't alter the course of the war.
'If we take the situation as a whole, it hardly looks like this will fundamentally change anything,' Kyiv resident Oles Oliinyk, 33, told The Associated Press.
Nina Tokar, 70, was also skeptical. 'I have very little faith in (Trump). He says one thing today, and tomorrow he may say something else.'
A Ukrainian army officer fighting in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region said the 50-day delay on sanctions 'is a very long time.'
'They (the Russians) will say, 'Give us two more weeks,' and then in two weeks, 'Give us another week.' It will drag on until October or November,' he told AP, using only the call sign 'Cat' in keeping with the rules of the Ukrainian military.
Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp agreed. 'I do believe that the 50 days that Mr Trump has announced is rather long. It's up to September 2. I think that's rather long.'
Much remains to be worked out about how the weapons, especially the Patriot systems, will be provided, Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in Brussels on Tuesday.
But, in an indication that Europe is relieved that the U.S. hasn't walked away from the conflict, he added: 'The most important thing is that we now have an American readiness to deliver these most needed weapons.'
Some European countries, such as Hungary and Slovakia, still rely heavily on Russia for energy supplies and could be hit hard by Trump's threatened secondary sanctions on countries that buy its oil and gas — an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said Trump's 50-day delay was a 'signal for Europe to prepare ourselves, because we still have some member states that are exposed to imports of oil and oil products from Russia.'
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said it remains to be seen whether Trump's announcement will be a turnaround but 'what is decisive is that the tone has changed.' The president's threat to impose sanctions after 50 days is 'significant progress,' Pistorius told ARD television.
___
Cook reported from Brussels.
___
Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
36 minutes ago
- Global News
Trump unveils new investments in energy and tech at Pennsylvania summit
President Donald Trump touted tens of billions of dollars of recent energy and technology investments Tuesday in Pennsylvania while boasting of a 'true golden age for America' in energy policy and artificial intelligence. Trump traveled to Pittsburgh at a summit helmed by Republican Sen. David McCormick that included dozens of top executives from companies aiming to make the city and the state a hot spot for advancements in robotics, artificial intelligence and energy. McCormick announced more than $90 billion of investments in the state — spurring tens of thousands of jobs — although some of the projects had already been in progress ahead of the summit. 'I think we have a true golden age for America. And we've been showing it, and it truly is the hottest country anywhere in the world,' Trump said at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, held at Carnegie Mellon University. Story continues below advertisement 'I'm honored to be in Pennsylvania, and I'm honored to be in Pittsburgh. And you're going to see some real action here. So get ready.' Trump has repeatedly pledged U.S. 'energy dominance' in the global market, and Pennsylvania — a swing state critical to his wins in 2016 and 2024 — is at the forefront of that agenda, in large part due to its coal and gas industry that the Republican administration has taken steps to bolster. Both the president and senior administration officials on Tuesday framed the investments as part of a race against China for the most advanced deployment of artificial intelligence, with Trump saying, 'We are way ahead of China, I have to say.' 'China and other countries are racing to catch up to America on AI, and we're not going to let them do it,' Trump said during the hourlong roundtable held in a university gymnasium, speaking often from prepared notes. Flanked by several of his Cabinet members, company executives and local political leaders, Trump added that the U.S. will be 'fighting them in a very friendly fashion.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Before Trump spoke, his Cabinet members spoke of the need to produce as much energy as possible — especially from coal and natural gas — to beat China in the AI race for the sake of economic and national security. 'The AI revolution is upon us,' Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said during an earlier panel discussion. 'The Trump administration will not let us lose. We need to do clean, beautiful coal. We need to do natural gas, we need to embrace nuclear, we need to embrace it all because we have the power to do it and if we don't do it we're fools.' Story continues below advertisement 0:31 Nvidia becomes 1st company to top $4 trillion valuation Some of the investments on a list released by McCormick's office were not necessarily brand-new, while others were. Some involve massive data center projects — such as a $15 billion project in central Pennsylvania — while others involve building power plants, expanding natural gas pipelines, upgrading power plants or improving electricity transmission networks. Google said it would invest $25 billion on AI and data center infrastructure over the next two years in PJM's mid-Atlantic electricity grid, while investment firm Brookfield said it had signed contracts to provide more than $3 billion of power to Google's data centers from two hydroelectric dams on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Frontier Group said it would transform the former Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant in western Pennsylvania into a new natural gas-fired plant, and AI cloud computing firm CoreWeave said it will spend more than $6 billion to equip a data center in south-central Pennsylvania. Story continues below advertisement Blackstone plans to spend $25 billion on data centers and building new natural gas-fired power plants in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the company will start construction by the end of 2028, said Jon Gray, its CEO. McCormick, a first-term Republican senator who organized the inaugural event, said the summit was meant to bring together top energy companies and AI leaders, global investors and labor behind Trump's energy policies and priorities. The list of participating CEOs includes leaders from global behemoths like Blackstone, Bridgewater, SoftBank, Amazon Web Services, BlackRock and ExxonMobil and local companies such as the Pittsburgh-based Gecko Robotics, which deploys AI to bolster energy capacity. 'What's exciting about this event is it's a great catalyst for investments and closing deals in the region,' said Jake Loosararian, the founder and CEO of Gecko Robotics. Administration officials at the summit included White House crypto czar David Sacks, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Lutnick. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also attended. Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, also spoke. McCormick credited his wife, Dina Powell McCormick, with the idea for a summit. Powell McCormick served as Trump's deputy national security adviser in his first term and is a former Goldman Sachs executive who is now at BDT & MSD Partners, a merchant bank. Pittsburgh is home to Carnegie Mellon University, a prestigious engineering school, plus a growing industry of small robotics firms and a so-called AI Avenue that's home to offices for Google and other AI firms. It also sits in the middle of the prolific Marcellus Shale natural gas reservoir. Story continues below advertisement 'What's going on is a rewiring of the economy, of the world over the next 15 years and that takes trillions and trillions and tens of trillions of dollars, and it starts with power,' said Bruce Flatt, CEO of Brookfield, during a panel discussion. Pennsylvania has scored big investment wins in recent months, some driven by federal manufacturing policy and others by the ravenous need for electricity from the fast-growing AI business. Nippon Steel just bought U.S. Steel for almost $15 billion, getting Trump's approval after pledging to invest billions alone in U.S. Steel's Pittsburgh-area plants. Amazon will spend $20 billion on two data center complexes in Pennsylvania, while the one-time Homer City coal-fired power plant is being turned into the nation's largest gas-fired power plant to fuel a data center campus. Meanwhile, Constellation Energy is reopening the lone functional nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island under a long-term power supply agreement for Microsoft's data centers.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Global views of China and Xi improve, while they decline about the US and Trump, survey says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Views of China and its leader, Xi Jinping, have improved in many countries worldwide, while those of the U.S. and President Donald Trump have deteriorated, according to a new survey of about two dozen countries by the Pew Research Center. Released Tuesday, the survey shows that international views of the two superpowers and their leaders are closer than ever. The results are a drastic departure from those in the past several years when the U.S. and its leader — then-President Joe Biden — enjoyed more favorable international views than China and its president. In its latest survey of 24 countries, Pew found that the U.S. was viewed more favorably than China in eight countries, China was viewed more favorably in seven, and the two were viewed about equally in the remainder. Pew did not provide definitive explanations for the shifts, but Laura Silver, associate director of research, said it's possible that views of a country may change when those of another superpower shift. 'As the U.S. potentially looks like a less reliable partner and people have limited confidence, for example, in Trump to lead the global economy, China may look different in some people's eyes,' Silver said. Also, China's human rights policies and its handling of the pandemic — which were related to negative views of the country in the past — may not weigh as much this time, she said. A group of Democratic senators this week accused the Trump administration of ceding global influence to China by shuttering foreign aid programs, imposing tariffs on allies, cracking down on elite universities and restricting visas for international students. In the Pew findings, 35% of those in 10 high-income countries surveyed consistently — including Canada, France, Germany and Italy — have favorable opinions of the U.S., down from 51% from last year. By comparison, 32% of them have positive views of China, up from last year's 23%. And 24% of them say they have confidence in Trump, compared with 53% last year for Biden. Xi scored a slight improvement: 22% of those in these rich countries say they have confidence in the Chinese president, up from last year's 17%. However, people in Israel have far more favorable views of the U.S. than of China: 83% of Israelis like the U.S., compared with 33% who say they have positive views of China. And 69% of them say they have confidence in Trump, while only 9% express confidence in Xi. Pew surveyed more than 30,000 people across 25 countries — including the U.S., which was excluded from the comparison — from Jan. 8 to April 26. The margins of error for each country ranged from plus or minus 2.5 to plus or minus 4.7. ___ AP writers Emily Swanson and Linley Sanders contributed to this report.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
McLaurin casts doubt on attending Commanders training camp given lack of progress on a new contract
LAUREL, Md. (AP) — A week before veterans arrive for Washington Commanders training camp, top wide receiver Terry McLaurin did not commit to practicing with the rest of the team, expressing frustration over a lack of progress toward a new contract. McLaurin said Tuesday after taping a local television commercial he wants 'things to work out … but at the end of the day, it takes two to tango.' 'I don't know what happens next,' McLaurin said. 'But without any progressive discussions, it's kind of hard to see how I step on the field.' What happens next, starting with his attendance at training camp or seeking a trade, is unclear. Instead of building on a dynamic passing connection with Offensive Rookie of the Year quarterback Jayden Daniels, McLaurin skipped mandatory minicamp and some voluntary workouts this spring. 'I've been pretty frustrated — I'm not gonna lie,' McLaurin said in his first expansive comments on the contract talks, which became a 30-minute discussion with reporters. 'Everything that has transpired to this point has been disappointing and frustrating. I've wanted to continue my career here. I've created my life here.' McLaurin, who turns 30 in September, signed a three-year, $68.2 million extension in 2022 under the Commanders' previous regime. His $23.2 million average annual salary ranks 17th among active wide receivers after the New York Jets agreed with Garrett Wilson on a four-year, $130 million extension Monday. McLaurin's 2025 base salary is $15.5 million. He had a career-high 13 touchdowns last season, his fifth in a row surpassing 1,000 yards receiving, on 82 receptions. McLaurin added another three touchdowns and 227 yards on 14 catches in three playoff games as Washington reached the NFC championship game for the first time since 1991. Instead of that success leading to smooth extension talks, McLaurin said his camp has not heard from the front office in the past month. McLaurin, a 2019 third-round pick out of Ohio State, said his status for training camp and future with the organization are 'up in the air.' That is a twist for someone who had been a face of the franchise before Daniels' arrival, producing on teams with a rotating cast of suspect QBs. That changed last season as the Commanders won 12 regular-season games with Daniels running the offense. Only Daniels rivals McLaurin's popularity among fans and for his locker room leadership. 'I understand that everything is a business, but at the same time, I want to put myself in a position where I'm valued and I feel appreciated and things like that,' McLaurin said. 'Unfortunately, that hasn't transpired the way I wanted it to.' The Commanders have remained quiet during the protracted negotiations beyond general manager Adam Peters and coach Dan Quinn expressing a desire to keep McLaurin around for a long time. While Wilson is on the verge of 25, McLaurin's primary comparison may be closer to fellow 2019 draft pick D.K. Metcalf, who is two years younger and signed a $132 million extension with Pittsburgh following an offseason trade from Seattle. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'I think how the market is today, I think it pretty much conveys what guys of my caliber are deserving of,' McLaurin said. 'I feel like I fit in that box because of how I've always carried myself on and off the field and the value I know I bring to a team.' The topic of age befuddles McLaurin, who has not missed a game since 2020. He noted that he wasn't a full-time player until deep into his Ohio State career and that this will only be his seventh NFL season. 'I'm not dismissing (age) completely,' McLaurin said. 'There are data points to support that, but how come it's not OK to say this may be a different case, and based on what he's proven, showing no signs of deterioration? I feel that should be acknowledged, as well.' ___ AP NFL:
