Donald Trump has threatened Russia with taxes, tariffs and sanctions if a deal to end the war in Ukraine is not struck soon, as the new US president tries to increase pressure on Moscow to start negotiations with Kyiv.
Writing in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said Russia’s economy was failing and urged Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war”.
Without a deal, Trump said “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 statement marks Trump’s most detailed efforts yet to end the war in Ukraine.
“Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way — and the easy way is always better,” he said.
Trump pledged during his presidential campaign to end the war before he even took office. Asked on Monday how long it would take to do so, he said: “I have to speak to President Putin. We’re going to have to find out.”
US media reported this week that Trump had instructed his special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to end the war in 100 days.
Top Russian officials have expressed unusual willingness to engage with Trump in recent statements. Putin praised his readiness to “restore direct contacts with Russia” on Monday.
In what appeared to be an appeal to Trump’s well-documented fondness for flattery, Putin has described him as courageous on two occasions, referring to the assassination attempt against him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on 1 July.
In contrast, Trump’s rhetoric towards Russia has been harsher, marking some of his strongest-ever public criticism of Putin and his leadership.
Asked about the war in Ukraine shortly after his inauguration on Monday, Trump said that his Russian counterpart was destroying Russia by refusing to negotiate a ceasefire.
“He can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well,” he told reporters, referring to Putin’s war. “Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country.”
Trump nevertheless wrote on Wednesday that he “always had a very good relationship” with Putin and that he “was not looking to turn Russia”.
Trump’s latest statements highlight the unease many in Moscow’s elite feel about his unpredictability, which has led to a cautious response since his re-election.
Alexander Kots, a high-profile pro-war correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda, wrote on Telegram that Trump had issued Putin an ultimatum.
“As I’ve said before, it’s better to prepare for the worst. Soon, we’ll look back on Biden’s term with nostalgia, like a thaw,” he said.
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Speaking to state media on earlier on Wednesday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said Moscow saw a “small window of opportunity” to forge agreements with the new Trump administration.
The Kremlin, however, has signalled that it is in no rush to sign a peace deal.
Russia’s deputy ambassador the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy gave a guarded response to Trump’s comments. “It’s not merely the question of ending the war. It’s first and foremost the question of addressing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” he said.
“So we have to see what does the ‘deal’ mean in President Trump’s understanding.”
Putin has repeatedly staked out a maximalist position for ending the war in recent months, demanding that Ukraine not join Nato, and that it adopt a neutral status and undergo some level of demilitarisation. He has insisted the west lift its sanctions against Russia and said he strives to retain control of Crimea and the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claimed in 2022.
In a show of strength, Putin held talks in the last few days with two of his key allies in his struggle against the west. He hosted the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in Moscow on Friday and spoke via video link to the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, on Tuesday.
Trump’s latest statement on the war in Ukraine notably omits any mention of providing additional weapons to Kyiv, instead signalling a shift towards deploying economic measures against Moscow.
Given the shrinking trade ties between the US and Russia, the effectiveness of Trump’s direct threat of tariffs is uncertain, though Washington has previously introduced a series of broad sanctions that damaged Russia’s economy.
Trump administration officials have previously indicated that they believe the US could further target Russia’s economy by sanctioning its energy sector.
Tatiana Stanovaya, the founder of the political analysis firm R.Politik, said that despite Trump’s efforts to force Putin to negotiate, the Russian leader appeared convinced that he had the resources to outlast Ukraine.
“A peace deal on Russian terms would save significant resources, but absent such an agreement, Putin is prepared to fight for as long as it takes,” she wrote on X.
She also wrote that Russia’s current economic situation was unlikely to compel Putin to negotiate with Ukraine. “If the Kremlin concludes that no favourable deal with Trump is forthcoming, they will likely focus on prolonging the conflict,” she added.
