Trump-Putin ‘deal’ alarms Kyiv, EU Qatar has simplified environmental permits for industrial facilities, exempting 86% of the industrial activities from the need of environmental permits. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change jointly launched the new initiative through which as many as 861 industrial activities are exempted from environmental permits. Business Page 1 US President Donald Trump inked plans yesterday for sweeping “reciprocal tariff s” that could hit both allies and competitors, in a dramatic escalation of an international trade war that economists warn could fuel inflation at home.Speaking in the Oval Off ice, Trump said he had decided to impose the reciprocal duties, telling reporters that US allies were often “worse than our enemies” on trade. In particular, he singled out the European Union for being “absolutely brutal” in its trade ties with Washington. Police arrested an Afghan asylum seeker at the scene of what German leaders labelled a car ramming “attack” that injured dozens, some seriously, in the southern city of Munich yesterday.The carnage came on the eve of a high-profile security conference in the Bavarian city and amid a heated immigration debate ahead of February 23 elections following a spate of similar attacks. Page 9 Kyiv and its European allies demanded yesterday that they be included in any peace negotiations, after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and said Ukraine could neither have all of its land back nor join Nato. “We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. ”Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.Ukraine and its European allies have demanded that they be included in any peace negotiations, after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and said Kyiv would neither get all its land back nor join the Nato.Russia’s financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine’s debt rose at the prospect of the first talks in years to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.Trump’s unilateral overture to Putin, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine’s principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.He said that Putin aimed to make his negotiations bilateral with the United States, and it was important that this not be allowed.The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia.Ukraine would “of course” participate in peace talks in some way, but there would also be a bilateral negotiation track between the United States and Russia, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public towards Trump’s peace overture, saying that any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She also denounced the apparent concessions offered in advance.“Why are we giving them (Russia) everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?” said Kallas. “It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister adept at smoothing over differences between Europe and Washington, said it was important that Moscow understand the West remained united, noting that Ukraine had never been promised that a peace deal would include alliance membership.A European diplomatic source said ministers had agreed to engage in a “frank and demanding dialogue” with US officials – some of the strongest language in the diplomatic lexicon – at the annual Munich Security Conference beginning today.On Wednesday Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, and then followed it up with a call to Zelensky.Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.However, the Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the Nato alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who unveiled the new policy in remarks at Nato headquarters, said yesterday that the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace”.Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow was “impressed” by Trump’s willingness to seek a settlement.Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its proxies captured territory in the east in 2014, before its full-scale invasion in 2022 when it captured more land in the east and south.Ukraine pushed Russian invaders back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, but its outmanned and outgunned forces have slowly ceded more land since a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.Relentless fighting has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides – there is no reliable death toll – and pulverised Ukrainian cities.Meanwhile, there has been no narrowing of positions on either side.Moscow demands Kyiv cede more land and be rendered permanently neutral in any peace deal; Kyiv says Russian troops must withdraw and it must win security guarantees comparable to Nato membership to prevent future attacks.Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU’s 27 nations, warned against settling for a deal that did not neutralise Russia’s threat to Europe.“Peace cannot be a simple ceasefire. Russia must no longer be a threat to Ukraine, to Europe, to international security,” he said.
