Donald Trump has called out Vladimir Putin for the almost three-year long conflict (Pictures: Reuters)
President Donald Trump has issued a candid warning to Russian leader Vladimir Putin – telling him to ‘settle now and stop this ridiculous war’.
The American leader has also threatened taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement isn’t made to end the war in Ukraine.
The US already prohibits the import of virtually all Russian products, and Russia has faced a multitude of US and European sanctions since the invasion began almost three years ago.
In a post to his Truth Social site today, Trump wrote that Putin should ‘settle now and stop this ridiculous war.’
He added: ‘If we don’t make a “deal”‘ and soon, 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.’
Trump did say he had no desire to hurt Russia – which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in the Second World War – and has a good relationship with Putin, but warned of penalties if the war is not stopped soon.
Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine (Picture: Reuters)
Russia has continued to rain missiles on Ukraine, almost three years into the conflict (Picture: EPA)
Trump and Putin previously met in 2017 at the G-20 summit (Picture: AP)
Previously, Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other material to defend itself. The US often provides military aid to other countries – for example, in 2023, $3.8 billion of aid was given to Israel.
The President has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.
Currently, other than a small amount of fertiliser, animal feed, inorganic material like tin, and machinery, Russia exports very little to the US that could be subject to tariffs. Oil had been Russia’s largest export to the US, but that was halted in 2023.
Russia is already one of the most sanctioned nations in the world. Most of those sanctions are due to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed under President Joe Biden, but others predate it.
Some were imposed during Trump’s first term in office, and some date back to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
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