Donald Trump threatened Russia with unspecified sanctions as he urged President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” he posted on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
The president said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and noted the two countries’ alliance in World War Two. “Russia helped us win,” he said.
But he added: “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.’ NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!”
followed comments by the head of Trump’s transition team, Robert Wilkie, on Tuesday, in which he warned that the US could “bankrupt the Russian economy” by flooding energy markets with American fuel if Putin did not cooperate over ending the war.
Trump promised to end the war on “day one” of his second term on the campaign trail, a goal since revised to within 100 days by his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.
Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, suggested Trump’s post marked a shift in his position.
“Credit where credit is due,” he wrote on social media. “Whoever has Trump’s ear over Russia has been able to make the case that Russia is much weaker than it likes to pretend. This is an important realisation.”
But other analysts noted that Russia is already heavily sanctioned by the US, which could reduce Trump’s leverage to force a deal.
Trump has made a fast start to his second term, with a flurry of executive orders and policy commitments (Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters)There was no immediate response from the Kremlin but Russian state media criticised Trump’s comments on World War Two.
“Trump believes Russia ‘helped the United States’ win World War Two,” posted RIA Novosti on Telegram. “Russian authorities have repeatedly said that some Western countries are trying to rewrite history.”
Ukrainian newspaper Strana was skeptical, noting a rash of Trump threats in recent weeks, including claims on Greenland and the Panama canal.
“Trump…has been threatening everyone. Russia is more lucky than Panama or Denmark that the new US president does not claim part of the Russian territory,” the newspaper posted on its Telegram channel.
“Time will tell on whom and how these threats will work, and if they do not work, how Trump will act.”
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Read MoreSteve Horrell, a former US naval officer and defence official at the Centre for European Policy Analysis think tank, suggested that Trump could struggle to force Putin to the table.
“Is there any deal out there acceptable to both President Putin and (Ukraine’s President Volodymyr) President Zelensky?”, he said.
“President Zelenskyy has been clear that Ukraine’s aim is full return of all Ukraine’s territories. To me, any cease fire that doesn’t begin with that assumption would be unacceptable to Ukraine, and any cease fire that indicates the return of territories, especially Crimea, would be unacceptable to Russia.”
Horrell added that Trump’s references to the suffering the war has caused the Russian population “represent a fundamental misunderstanding of Putin’s political calculus. I think that overestimates Putin’s concern for the Russian population.”
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