While Western countries are considering imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, the Kremlin on September 8 affirmed that increasing economic pressure will not force the country to change its stance.
“No sanctions can force the Russian Federation to change its consistent position, which our president has repeatedly stated,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media.
Peskov’s statement came as the European Union is preparing its 19th package of sanctions targeting Russia’s banks and energy sector.
Bloomberg reported on September 8 that US President Donald Trump has also repeatedly warned of imposing secondary sanctions on Russian oil if the war in Ukraine continues.
In a statement, spokesman Peskov asserted that the sanctions are completely useless in putting pressure on Russia.
However, according to the Kyiv Independent, despite Peskov’s statements, the sanctions have certainly affected the Russian economy, significantly limiting the country’s trade with international partners and weakening its ability to trade oil.
After an initial surge led by the defense industry, Russia’s economy has been hit by uncertainty amid high inflation, slowing economic growth and near-record interest rates.
But Russia has shown no signs of stopping its war in Ukraine anytime soon.
Progress toward the Trump-brokered Ukraine peace talks appears to be stalled again as drone and missile strikes have intensified.
Russia launched its largest-ever drone attack on Ukraine early on September 7, killing at least five people and injuring 44. Ukraine said the attack also targeted a government building for the first time, the Cabinet building in Kiev. Russia, for its part, has denied targeting a Ukrainian government building. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Moscow’s forces attacked an industrial and logistics facility in the Ukrainian capital. Specifically, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian forces carried out a long-range attack on Ukrainian drone assembly facilities, as well as an industrial enterprise in Kiev, adding that no other buildings were targeted.
In recent days, President Trump announced that he was ready to initiate a “second phase” of sanctions against Russia. CNN reported that President Trump has become increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress on peace and is considering how he should participate in brokering a meeting between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine.
Following the large-scale attack on Kiev, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is counting on a strong response from the United States. President Zelensky has repeatedly called on the United States to increase economic pressure to weaken Russia’s war resources.