President Donald Trump on Monday reduced to less than two weeks his deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to either reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face massive “secondary tariffs” on Moscow’s trade partners.
Trump previously gave Putin a 50-day deadline, which was set to expire in early September.
But he signalled Monday that things were taking too long, saying “I’m going to make a new deadline of about …10 or 12 days from today.”
“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Trump said in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“Russia and Ukraine — I would have said five times we had a deal,” Trump said. “I spoke to President Putin a lot. Got along with him very well.”
“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,” he said.
“There’s no reason they’re waiting,” Trump said. “I want to be generous, but we just don’t see any progress being made.”
He later said that he likely will formally announce the revision in the deadline “tonight or tomorrow,” adding that the U.S. would impose sanctions along with the secondary tariffs.
“But there’s no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait?” Trump said.
Trump imposed a 50-day deadline on Putin on July 14. At that time, he said that buyers of Russian exports would face tariffs “at about 100%” if there were no ceasefire deal with Ukraine by September.
Trump once avoided criticizing Putin. But in recent months, he has made his frustrations known as Russia’s war on Ukraine has intensified.
Trump has complained that Putin will suggest in their phone calls that he is open to ending hostilities with Ukraine, but then will quickly order new military actions. (CNBC)
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