President Donald Trump turned to Truth Social to defend his choice to end sanctions on Russia. He tied the step to ongoing talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine and said he did not want to push Moscow away from those discussions. In the post, he wrote that “Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations!”
The announcement arrived a week after Trump had briefly removed sanctions on Russian diesel fuel. Officials described that earlier step as an effort to ease U.S. fuel costs ahead of the midterm elections. Trump then used the longer Sunday message to lay out his broader reasoning.
