MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it continues to monitor statements by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding sanctions against Moscow, but that Russia had acquired immunity to such measures thanks to long experience.
Trump said on Tuesday that the United States would start imposing tariffs and other measures on Russia in 10 days if Moscow showed no progress towards ending its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine.
“We have been living under a huge number of sanctions for quite a long time, our economy operates under a huge number of restrictions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“Therefore, of course, we have already developed a certain immunity in this regard, and we continue to note all statements that come from President Trump, from other international representatives on this matter.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the threat of new sanctions “routine” and said it was odd that the U.S. and the West had not yet understood that imposing such measures did not work and only served to hurt Western economies.
“We see that the West simply cannot let go of the issue of sanctions. It seems as if they are constantly stuck in a rut,” Zakharova told a news briefing in Moscow.
“Apparently, there are no other options left - they have been exhausted. We are responding and taking measures to counteract all of this or even turn it to our own advantage.”
On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities a Russian missile hit a Ukrainian army training ground, killing three soldiers and wounding 18 others, in the latest attack to embarrass military officials as they struggle to make up a severe manpower shortage in the nearly 3½-year war.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strike killed or wounded about 200 Ukrainian troops. The ministry said that Ukraine’s 169th training center near Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region was hit with two Iskander missiles, one armed with multiple submunitions and another with high explosives.
Meanwhile, Russia continued its stepped-up aerial campaign against Ukrainian civilian targets, launching 78 attack drones overnight, including up to eight newly developed jet-powered drones, Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday. At least five people were wounded.