President Donald Trump confirmed to reporters on Sunday that two nuclear submarines he ordered to “face Russia” are now “in the region” ahead of U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff’s planned visit to Moscow, this week.
Trump previously said on Truth Social he ordered the subs “to be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to what he considered “highly provocative statements” from former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev about potential war with the United States.
It should be noted that Medvedev is one Putin’s mouthpieces, so it’s a safe assumption that anything he says has the Russian dictator’s approval.
When asked if there’s anything Russia can do to ward off his latest announced tariffs on Russian products imported to the U.S., Trump replied, “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
The president added:
Well, there’ll be sanctions, but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions. You know, they’re wily characters, and they’re pretty good at avoiding sanctions. So we’ll see what happens.
A tremendous number of Russian soldiers have been killed. And likewise Ukraine, a lower number, but still thousands and thousands of people. And now we’re adding towns where they’re being hit by missiles. So it’s a lot of people being killed in that ridiculous war.
We stopped a lot of countries from war, India and Pakistan, we stopped a lot of countries. And we’re going to get that one stopped too. Somehow. We’re going to get that one stopped. That’s a really horrible war.
Trump has previously said, “I always hang up [from a call with Putin] and say, ‘Well that was a nice phone call,’ and then [Russia sends] missiles into Kyiv or some other city,” which points to the main sticking point in achieving a “deal” with Putin:
The Russian strongman has consistently demonstrated he’s far less interested in ending tariffs on Russian imports to the U.S. than in gobbling up as much of Ukraine and its natural resources as he can get away with, before he finally agrees to end the “really horrible war.”
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Prior to authorizing the deployment of nuclear submarines, last week, Trump reportedly cautioned Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, to be careful with his inflammatory statements.
Medvedev had expressed frustration after Trump reduced his Russia-Ukraine ceasefire ultimatum timeline from 50 days to 10-12 days, describing the move as risking escalating tensions not only between Russia and Ukraine but also with the United States.
Hollow saber-rattling on Medvedev’s part; nothing more.
In response to Trump sending subs to the region, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reportedly downplayed the the deployment, telling reporters that “American submarines are already on combat duty – that’s a constant process” and that Russians “don’t believe this is a case of any sort of escalation,” according to the Russian-language news website Meduza.
Asked about Medvedev’s remarks, Peskov said members of the leadership in any country have different views but stressed Putin definitively decides Russian foreign policy.
In addition, according to The Moscow Times, Peskov said:
We approach any statements related to nuclear issues with great caution. Russia is firmly committed to nuclear non-proliferation, and we believe that all parties should exercise the utmost restraint when it comes to nuclear rhetoric.
Maybe so, maybe not.
Perhaps if Vladimir Putin’s Russia issued the utmost restraint and stopped indiscriminately bombing Ukrainian cities and killing Ukrainian citizens, some semblance of sanity could return to the region — and negotiations with the Trump administration could proceed from there.
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