Donald Trump has warned that he will impose high tariffs and new sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine.
Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to settle the war he was doing Russia and its president a “very big favor.”
Trump previously said he would negotiate a settlement to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 in just one day.
Russia has not yet responded to the remarks, but senior officials have said in recent days that there is a small window of opportunity for Moscow to deal with the new U.S. administration.
Putin has repeatedly said he is willing to negotiate an end to the war, which began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which currently make up about 20 percent of its territory. He also refuses to allow Ukraine to join NATO.
kyiv does not want to cede its territory, even though President Volodymyr Zelensky has acknowledged that it may have to temporarily cede some currently occupied lands.
On Tuesday, Trump said at a news conference that he would speak with Putin “very soon” and that it “seemed likely” that he would apply more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table.
But in his Truth Social article on Wednesday, he went further: “I am going to do a very big FAVOR to Russia, whose economy is bankrupt, and to President Putin,” he wrote.
“Sit down now and STOP this ridiculous war! IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries.
Continuing, he said: “Let’s end this war, which would never have started if I had been president! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE’ A DEAL.”
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told the Reuters news agency earlier that the Kremlin would need to know what Trump wants in a deal to end the war before the country moves forward.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that at least 200,000 peacekeeping troops would be needed under any deal.
And he told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country should include U.S. troops to provide a realistic deterrent against Russia.
“This cannot be done without the United States… Even if some European friends think it is possible, no, it will not happen,” he said, adding that no one else would take the risk of such an approach without the United States.
Although Ukraine’s leaders may like a tougher Trump – they have always said Putin only understands force – the initial reaction in kyiv to the US president’s comments suggests it’s actions people expect, not words .
Trump did not specify where more economic sanctions might be imposed, or when. Russian imports to the United States have fallen since 2022 and all kinds of heavy restrictions are already in place.
Currently, the main Russian exports to the United States are phosphate fertilizers and platinum.
On social media, Ukrainians reacted in a generally scathing manner. Many have suggested that more sanctions would be a weak response to Russian aggression. But the bigger question for most is what Putin is actually willing to discuss with Ukraine in any peace talks.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, some people see signs that the Kremlin may be preparing Russians to accept less than the “victory” once envisioned, which included tanks rolling west to the port city of Moscow. Odessa, in southern Ukraine.
TV editor Margarita Simonyan, staunchly pro-Putin, began talking about “realistic” conditions for ending the war, which she said could include stopping fighting along the current front line.
This would mean that the four Ukrainian regions that Putin illegally declared as Russian territory more than two years ago, such as Zaporizhzhia, would still be partially controlled by kyiv.
Russian hardliners, the so-called “Z” bloggers, are furious at such “defeatism”.
In his social media post, Trump also framed his threat of tougher tariffs and sanctions in terms of “love” for the Russian people and emphasized his respect for Soviet losses in World War II – a near-sacred subject for Putin – although Trump massively overestimated the numbers and seemed to think the USSR was just Russia. In reality, millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens also lost their lives.
That said, the man who previously said he could “understand” Russia’s concerns about Ukraine’s NATO membership – which for kyiv is tantamount to saying Putin was provoked – appears to be changing his tune .
Trump’s position is important. But after 11 years of war with Russia and a history of bad peace deals, Ukrainians are not inclined to get their hopes up.
