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Donald Trump has warned Vladimir Putin that the US is ready to hit Russia with new trade sanctions if Moscow fails to reach an agreement soon to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump’s statement in a True Social post on Wednesday comes as the president tries to increase pressure on Moscow to start negotiations with Ukraine.
It marks his first broad statement on the conflict since returning for his second term in the White House after a campaign promise to end the war. war within 24 hours of returning to power.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no choice but to impose higher levels of Tariffs, Tariffs and Penalties on anything sold to the United States by Russia and other participating countries,” Trump wrote.
“Let’s start this war, which would not have started if I was the President, it’s over! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better,” he continued.
Joe Biden’s administration imposed heavy sanctions on Moscow after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. US trade with Russia has already slowed, so any additional tariffs could have little effect.
But Trump administration officials believe there are many ways the US can tighten the loopholes on Russia financially, particularly by targeting its energy sector.
The Biden administration was reluctant to block Russian oil and gas exports for fear of disrupting global energy markets. Under the former president, Washington imposed additional restrictions on Russian liquefied natural gas projects and set an international price cap for Russian oil, which Moscow successfully avoided.
During his confirmation hearing to become Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent last week told Congress that he would be “100 percent on board for sanctions, especially on Russian oil officials, in the conditions that will bring the Russian Federation”. .
Besent also said that he believed that the US sanctions on Russia imposed by Biden “were not sufficiently comprehensive”.
Trump, who has been questioning US military aid to Ukraine, said he expects to meet Putin soon and the Kremlin said the Russian leader is ready to sit down with the US president, but no meeting is planned.
In his post, Trump spoke of his “very good relationship with President Putin” and said he did not want to “hurt” Russia, but would do it a “favor” by forcing it to agreement.
Hours after being sworn in on Monday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that Putin was “destroying Russia” by continuing to fight in Ukraine.
But the president’s announcement reveals his frustration that Moscow does not seem to be heeding his calls to resolve the issue.
“Putin does not want to end the war, and he does not want to be pressured into peace,” a senior Ukrainian official close to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times in response to Trump’s comments.
Trump’s special representative for the conflict in Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, told Fox News earlier this month that he hopes to find a solution within “100 days”.
Kellogg had postponed a trip to hold meetings with Kyiv officials earlier this month, according to people with knowledge of the plans. People said the ambassador delayed his visit because Trump had not made a plan to bring the Russians to the negotiating table and end the war.
Kellogg is expected to visit Kyiv next month but Ukrainians may first meet with him and other members of Trump’s team in Washington.
David Arakhamia, head of Zelenskyy’s party in the Ukrainian parliament, said a delegation from Kyiv planned to meet with members of the new administration in the US capital in the coming days.
“Contacts between the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation and the new Trump team may begin in early February as part of the ‘Ukrainian Week’ in Washington,” he told Ukrainian television on Tuesday.
