The United States has not imposed tariffs against Russia as Washington is negotiating with it, the director of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett said.
Washington’s tariffs hit Brussels and Kyiv, but not Moscow
On April 3, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on 185 countries, including China and Ukraine, with Russia not on the list.
The highest tariffs, up to 50 per cent, were imposed on Lesotho and the French overseas territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Cambodia (49 per cent) and Vietnam (46 per cent) received almost equally high rates. For China the tariff is set at 34%, for the EU countries – 20%, and the base rate for the rest is 10%, including Ukraine.
Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that the new US tariffs for Ukraine will be heavy, but it will not be critical. They will hit small manufacturers the most, she also added.
At the same time, for several days the White House did not explain anything on the matter. However, it has now emphasised that Russia was not included in the list of countries subject to Washington’s tariffs because of the ongoing negotiations on Ukraine.
“There’s obviously an ongoing negotiation with Russia and Ukraine, and I think the president made the decision not to conflate the two issues. It doesn’t mean that Russia, the fullest of time, is going to be treated wildly different than every other country, but Russia is one of the only countries, one of the few countries, that is not subject to these new tariffs,” Hassett said.
Hassett added that it was about saving the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, so imposing tariffs while trying to resolve the conflict “would be counterproductive.”
EU prepares response
As part of the trade war launched by Washington, the European Union is going to approve tariffs on US imports worth up to $28 billion. In particular, tariffs may be imposed on meat products, cereals, wine, chewing gum, wood, toilet paper, clothing and some household appliances.
According to the EU media, European politicians still have no consensus on whether to introduce an increased tariff of 50 per cent on bourbon.
A number of countries have expressed fears that the US will retaliate by imposing tariffs of 200% on wine, champagne and other spirits.
The fragile truce is not respected
On 18 March, Donald Trump’s administration announced a diplomatic breakthrough: Russia and Ukraine agreed on a 30-day moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure.
Washington called it a “huge success” for its shuttle diplomacy. Two weeks later, however, it became clear that the fragile truce would not last long.
On April 4, the Russian Defence Ministry reported six attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on Russian energy facilities overnight. Ukrainian forces shelled low-pressure gas pipelines in Bryansk and Tambov regions, attacked Bryanskenergo facilities across the border, and launched a drone strike on a switchboard in Lipetsk region.
On April 5 and 6, they struck energy infrastructure facilities in four Russian regions, the Russian Defence Ministry’s press service said in its Telegram-channel.
As a result of the AFU drone attack, the high-voltage line Ostrovskaya – Kovylnoye of the Krymenergo State Unitary Enterprise in Crimea was damaged. It also targeted power facilities in the Bryansk, Rostov and Voronezh regions.
In the early hours of April 6, Russian forces hit the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a ballistic missile and attacked a number of settlements with missiles and drones. AFU said the attack involved a total of more than 100 drones as well as 23 missiles of various types.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported a group strike with air- and sea-based long-range precision weapons, as well as drones, on the AFU’s central artillery weapons base, as well as defence industry enterprises involved in the production of UAVs. The Ministry did not specify the location of the targets.
Earlier, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia reserves the right not to observe the moratorium on strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities if the AFU continues to attack Russian facilities.
Russia should “dance the tango,” NATO chief says
Russia “must dance the tango” to resolve the conflict with Ukraine but so far does not appear to be doing so, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an interview on CBS.
“The ball clearly is in the court of the Russians,” Rutte said.
In his view, the US president’s team is trying to reach a situation in which the conflict can be ended, but it will be difficult without Russia’s assistance. As Rutte noted, “the front line was moving in the wrong direction, this war is moving in the wrong direction.”
US President Donald Trump also described the peace process with the same phrase about the need for both sides to tango in mid-March, when the US and Ukrainian delegations managed to tentatively agree on a 30-day ceasefire. He then expressed hope that Russia would endorse the initiative: “hopefully President Putin will agree to that also and we can get this show on the road.”
Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has said that a new round of Russian-US talks on Ukraine may take place as early as next week.
NATO already in Kyiv
On April 4, representatives of Ukraine, France and the UK met in Kyiv to discuss the deployment of a military contingent, the media reported citing a source in diplomatic circles.
The meeting was held at the level of chiefs of military staff: the French delegation was headed by the chief of the main military staff of the armed forces, General Thierry Burkhard, while the British delegation was headed by the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Anthony Radakin.
During the day, they held a number of meetings with the Ukrainian military, as well as with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky announced a meeting with representatives of countries willing to station a military contingent in Ukraine on April 1, calling it the first “in-depth meeting” on the issue. According to him, they were talking about land and air units, as well as a presence at sea.
In early March, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled their plan to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, which in the first phase involves a “ceasefire in the air, sea and energy infrastructure” for a month. According to this plan, a peacekeeping contingent is deployed in Ukraine as part of the second phase, after the ceasefire is reached.
