President Trump Monday shortened to less than two weeks his deadline for Russia’s Vladimir Putin to talk peace with Ukraine.
After previously giving the Kremlin strongman 50 days, Trump said he has lost patience with Putin’s refusal to come to the table to end the three-year invasion of its smaller neighbor.
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 — 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters in Scotland during a meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“There’s no reason they’re waiting,” Trump added. “I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
President Donald Trump speaks with the media as he greets Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, left, and his wife Victoria at the Trump Turnberry golf course in Scotland on Monday. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
If Putin doesn’t agree to talk peace, Trump says he will impose hefty tariffs on Russia’s trade partners, which include global economic heavyweights China and India.
Trump had set the 50-day deadline on July 14, saying that all buyers of Russian exports would face tariffs “at about 100%” on imports to the U.S. if Putin does not forge a ceasefire with Kyiv.
The president signaled exasperation at Putin, saying he was “disappointed” at his failure to follow through on previous pledges to end the war.
“Every time i think he’s gonna end, he kills people,” Trump said. “I’m not interested in talking to him any more.”
For years, Trump had avoided criticizing Putin and even sought to shift the blame for Russia’s invasion to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But Trump has openly bared his frustration with Moscow as Putin intensifies attacks on the front line in eastern Ukraine and civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities.
He has complained that Putin will suggest in their phone calls that he is open to ending hostilities with Ukraine, and then will quickly order new military actions.
“Russia and Ukraine — I would have said five times we had a deal. I spoke to President Putin a lot. Got along with him very well,” Trump also said Monday.
“Then President Putin launches rockets into a city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people — in a nursing home, or wherever — and there are bodies lying all over the street,” Trump said.
Although Trump talked tough on Monday, he has a well-documented history of setting seemingly firm deadlines, then backing down from the threats.
For example, Trump said in May that he would know in “about two weeks” if Putin was serious about ending the war, but nothing ever came of the statement. On tariffs, he said on May 5 that he would announce new tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals within two weeks, but they have not yet been unveiled.
On the other hand, he told the world he would give Iran “two weeks” to negotiate restrictions on its nuclear program, then unleashed a massive attack just a couple of days later.
The “secondary tariffs” he is threatening to impose on third countries may be particularly difficult to actually implement because those nations have no direct control over Russia’s actions.
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