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- The Kremlin says it needs time to respond to Donald Trump’s statement threatening tariffs unless a Ukraine peace deal is reached within 50 days, as top security official Dmitry Medvedev says Russia “didn’t care” about the “theatrical ultimatum” issued by the US president.
- Trump has announced a deal to supply more weapons to Ukraine and threatened to impose steep tariffs on Russia unless the deal is reached.
Accountability must be at the heart of any move towards peace: UN
The United Nations has said any peace talks must include full accountability for the countless violations during the war.
“An immediate ceasefire is needed now to end this unbearable suffering,” Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for the office of UN rights chief Volker Turk, told reporters.
“Work on a lasting peace, in line with international law, must intensify – a peace that ensures accountability for gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law,” she said, noting “accountability must be” at the heart of “any move towards ceasefire, towards peace”.
Throssell said Turk wanted any negotiations to focus in the immediate term on ending attacks that affect civilians and protecting the rights of people in occupied territory.
They should also seek to return forcibly transferred or deported children, establish humanitarian corridors across the line of control and an bring end to the torture and ill treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees, she added.
Russia has unleashed record waves of drone and missile attacks over the past few weeks, with the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or wounded in June hitting a three-year high, according to UN figures, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured.
“July has brought no respite for civilians in Ukraine,” said Throssell. So far this month at least 139 civilians have reportedly been killed and 791 wounded, she said.
“Intense and sustained attacks using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas are likely to have indiscriminate impacts and as such raise serious concerns as to their compliance with international humanitarian law,” said Throssell.
Lavrov says Russia wants to understand Trump’s motivation behind 50-day ultimatum
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia would like more clarity on Trump’s threat to impose severe tariffs on Russia unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days.
“We, of course, want to understand what is behind this statement [by Trump] – 50 days. It used to be 24 hours, it used to be 100 days, we have been through all of this, and we really want to understand what motivates the president of the United States,” Lavrov told journalists following a Shanghai Cooperation Organization Foreign Ministers meeting in the Chinese city Tianjin.
