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US President Donald Trump finally labeled Russia as the aggressor in the war against Ukraine, demonstrating a hardening of his stance towards Moscow.
Referring to the number of casualties among Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, Trump told reporters on Sunday that "8,000 soldiers have died this week, from both countries. Some more from Russia, but when you're the aggressor, you lose more."
Trump has previously refused to condemn Moscow for the invasion, with his administration joining Russia and North Korea in February in rejecting a UN resolution supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity and condemning Russia. The US also opposed a G7 statement in February that called Russia the aggressor. Trump has blamed Ukraine for the war, saying in April that you don't start a war against someone 20 times bigger than you and then hope people give you some missiles.
But Trump's stance toward the Kremlin has changed over the summer, with his administration putting increasing pressure on Vladimir Putin, while the Russian president obstructs Trump's efforts to broker direct peace talks with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.
"I stopped seven wars and I thought this would be easy for me, but this has turned out to be difficult," Trump said Sunday, referring to the Russian invasion.
He then added, "they (Zelenskyy and Putin) hate each other. They hate each other so much they can't breathe."
As Trump's tougher stance has failed to persuade Putin to sit down at the negotiating table with Zelensky, the US administration is facing growing calls to impose tougher sanctions on Russia. Trump on Sunday claimed he planned to do so, but only after Europe stops buying Russian oil and tightens its own sanctions regime.
While Trump said European countries are his "friends," they still "buy oil from Russia. I don't want them buying oil. And the sanctions they're putting in place aren't tough enough."
Hungary and Slovakia are the main buyers of Russian energy in the EU and have opposed the European Commission's efforts to phase it out.
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