US President Donald Trump has warned that he will impose high tariffs on Russian goods and impose more sanctions if they fail to end the war in Ukraine.
He wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that by pushing for a settlement of the war he was doing a “very big favor” to Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
Trump previously said he would negotiate a settlement to the conflict, which began with Russia's large-scale invasion in February 2022, in one day.
Russia has not yet responded to these statements, but senior officials have said in recent days that there is a small opportunity for Moscow to deal with the new US administration.
Putin has repeatedly stressed his willingness to negotiate an end to the war, but Ukraine must accept the reality of the territorial gains achieved by Russia, which currently constitute about 20% of its territory. Meanwhile, Kyiv says it is not ready to give up its territory.
Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday that he would talk to Putin “very soon” and “it seems likely” that he would implement more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table.
But he went further in his Truth Social post on Wednesday, writing: “I would be doing Russia, whose economy is collapsing, a big favor, and President Putin.”
“Settle down now, and stop this ridiculous war! It's only going to get worse. If we don't make a 'deal' and soon, I have no other choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything.” Which Russia sells to the United States and many other participating countries.”
He continued: “Let's end this war, which would never have started if I were president! We can do this 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 United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, previously told Reuters news agency that the Kremlin would need to know what Trump wants in an agreement to stop the war before the country moves forward.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that at least 200,000 peacekeepers would be needed under any deal.
He told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country should include American forces to provide a realistic deterrent to Russia.
“It cannot be without the United States… Even if some European friends think it is possible, it will not be so,” he said, adding that no one else would risk such a step without the United States.
While Ukraine's leaders may appreciate Trump's tougher rhetoric – they have always said that Putin only understands force – the initial reaction in Kiev to the US president's comments suggests that people are waiting for action, not words.
Trump did not specify where more economic sanctions might be imposed or when. Russian imports to the United States have been declining since 2022, and there are all kinds of heavy restrictions in place already.
Currently, the main Russian exports to the United States are phosphate- and platinum-based fertilizers.
On social media, there was a generally vitriolic reaction from Ukrainians. Many suggested that imposing further sanctions was a weak response to Russian aggression. But the bigger question most people have is what Putin actually wants to discuss with Ukraine in any peace talks.
Meanwhile, some people in Moscow see signs that the Kremlin may be preparing Russians to accept less than the “victory” once envisioned, which included a tank advance all the way west to the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
TV editor Margarita Simonyan, a staunch supporter of Putin, has begun talking about “realistic” conditions for ending the war, which she suggests could include stopping fighting along the current front line.
This means that the four Ukrainian regions that Putin illegally declared Russian territory more than two years ago, such as Zaporizhia, are still partly under Kiev's control.
Russian hardliners, the so-called “Z” bloggers, are very angry at such “defeatism.”
In his social media post, Trump also couched his threat of tougher tariffs and sanctions with words of “love” for the Russian people and highlighted his respect for Soviet losses in World War II — a near-sacred subject for Putin — though Trump has grossly exaggerated his assessment. big. The numbers seem to think that the Soviet Union was Russia alone. In fact, millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens lost their lives as well.
However, the man who previously said he could “understand” Russia's concerns about Ukraine joining NATO – which for Kiev means 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 poor peace agreements, Ukrainians are less optimistic.
