Ukraine war briefing: Trump’s sanctions waiver is a ‘60-day pause’ to analyse economic impact, says Rubio
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy expects Trump to lift more sanctions against Russia. What we know on day 1,698 US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that US President Donald Trump’s waiver of sweeping sanctions and tariffs on Russia would be a 60-day pause to “analyse” their impact on the global economy.
Rubio said also no one at the White House ordered the slow down of the speed of Ukraine’s access to Starlink to prevent it from being used on drones flying faster than 100mph, referring to Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet network.
“The president wants to take the 60-day period of time to sort of analyse what imposing both sanctions and tariffs will mean to the global economy and even to the US economy,” Rubio said, noting that the economic restrictions involved a number of countries, not just Russia. Pointing to high energy prices and the Iran war, “we need that period of time to sort of study all this and figure out what the right combination is,” he said.
Trump’s abrupt decision to waive sanctions on Russia days before they were to take effect drew outrage Saturday from members of Congress, which had overwhelmingly passed the legislation. Republican Senator Rick Scott said it was clear Russia was the aggressor, and said the US had “to do everything we can to put economic pressure on Russia”. On social media, fellow Republican Thom Tillis described the move as “beyond irresponsible” and a capitulation “to a Russian dictator who...
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The GuardianSource headline and summary supplied via NewsData.io. First collected by NewsJaws on 2026-10-18. This is an automated news brief, not original NewsJaws reporting. Dates reflect the source publication. Feed delays may apply.