Trump tells Putin to end ‘ridiculous war’ in Ukraine or face new sanctions

US President Donald Trump has warned that he will impose high tariffs on Russian goods and impose more sanctions if he fails to end the war in Ukraine.

Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to resolve the war he was doing Russia and its president Vladimir Putin a “huge favor.”

Trump has previously said he would negotiate a solution to the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, in a single day.

Russia has not yet responded to the comments, but senior officials have said in recent days that there is a small window of opportunity for Moscow to negotiate with the new US administration.

Putin has repeatedly said he is willing to negotiate an end to the war, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which currently account for about 20% of its territory. Meanwhile, Kyiv says it is not willing to give up its territory.

On Tuesday, Trump said at a news conference that he would speak with Putin “very soon” and that it “seems likely” that he would apply more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table.

But in his Truth Social post on Wednesday, he went further: “I’m going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR,” he wrote.

“Remember now and STOP this ridiculous war! IT’S ONLY GETTING WORSE. If we don’t reach a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States and several other participating countries.

He went on to say, “Let’s get this war over with, which would never have started if I were 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, previously told Reuters news agency that the Kremlin would need to know what Trump wants in a deal to stop the war before the country moves forward.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that any deal would need at least 200,000 peacekeepers.

And he told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country would have to include American troops to represent a realistic deterrent to Russia.

“It can’t be without the United States… Even if some European friends think it can be, no, it won’t be,” he said, adding that no one else would risk such a move without the United States.

While Ukraine’s leaders might appreciate this tougher talk from Trump (they have always said that Putin only understands force), the initial reaction in kyiv to the US president’s comments suggests that what people expect are actions, not words.

Trump has not specified where or when more economic sanctions could be applied. Russian imports to the United States have plummeted since 2022 and all kinds of strong restrictions are already in place.

Currently, Russia’s main exports to the United States are phosphate and platinum-based fertilizers.

On social media, there was a generally scathing response from Ukrainians. Many suggested that imposing more sanctions was a weak response to Russian aggression. But the most important question for most is what Putin is really willing to discuss with Ukraine in any peace talks.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, some people are seeing signs that the Kremlin may be preparing Russians to accept less than the “victory” once envisioned, which included tanks advancing west to the southern port city of Odessa. from Ukraine.

The stridently pro-Putin television editor Margarita Simonyan has begun to talk about “realistic” conditions for ending the war, suggesting it could include stopping fighting along the current front line.

That would mean that the four Ukrainian regions that Putin illegally declared as Russian territory more than two years ago, such as Zaporizhzhia, would remain partially controlled by kyiv.

Russian hardliners, the so-called “Z” bloggers, are furious at such “defeatism.”

In his social media post, Trump also couched his threat to impose tougher tariffs and sanctions in words of “love” for the Russian people and highlighted his respect for Soviet losses in World War II (a near-sacred topic for Putin ), although Trump grossly 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 joining NATO (which for kyiv is tantamount to saying Putin was provoked) appears to be changing his tune.

Trump’s position matters. But after 11 years of war with Russia and a history of bad peace deals, Ukrainians are unwilling to hope.