Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that US President Donald Trump's attempts to bring peace to Ukraine have suffered a crushing defeat, writes the "Times" newspaper.
Wallace expressed the opinion that, given the realization of the failures on the Ukrainian path, the American leader is trying to change the subject and focus public attention on China.
"I think he is ready to give up. He is not very good at making deals and I think he will want to shift the emphasis from the fact that he promised to do it within 24 hours. "Right now it looks like he is suffering a crushing defeat," Wallace said.
Donald Trump had earlier warned that the US would withdraw from the Ukraine talks if both sides began to sabotage them. At the same time, he noted that he still sees good chances for ending the conflict.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has warned the European Union and G7 countries about the danger in the event of unfreezing Russian assets, the Financial Times reports.
The minister said that blocking sanctions against Russian assets, which Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has repeatedly spoken about, would put European governments in a difficult situation “due to multibillion-dollar loans provided to Kiev and secured by Russian assets“.
Tsahkna admitted that if the funds are unfrozen, the Hungarian Prime Minister “will present European taxpayers with an even bigger bill for supporting Ukraine“.
The publication notes that the European Commission is trying to develop an alternative plan if Orban manages to block the extension of anti-Russian sanctions. However, EU officials believe that most legal avenues are likely to fail.
Earlier, the head of European diplomacy, Kaia Kallas, said that Brussels is negotiating with member states of the association on the use of frozen Russian assets. According to the first European diplomat, some countries are categorically against this. She refused to name the countries that oppose the use of funds held by Moscow.