The United States president Donald Trump, has threatened to impose high tariff and further sanctions on Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump also warned to impose penalty to on other countries who he considered as participants or have contributed to the conflicts if a negotiation to end the nearly three-years tension is not met.
The president, who made this fresh threat through his social handle yesterday, said that by pushing to settle the war, he was doing Russia and its president a “very big favour.”
“I’m going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOUR,” Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. 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.”
“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. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL, ” he wrote on his Truth Social page.
Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said the president threat of more serious sanctions on Russia “gives a signal to Vladimir Putin this is going to get worse, not better”.  “We should incentivize Putin to say, ‘OK, it’s time actually to have a ceasefire,” he Volker said.
Russia has not yet responded to the remarks, but senior officials have said in recent days that there is a small window of opportunity for Moscow to deal with the new US administration.
Putin has said repeatedly that he is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, which first began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which are currently about 20% of its land. He also refuses to allow Ukraine to join Nato, the military alliance of Western countries.
Earlier, Russia’s Deputy United Nations (UN) ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy said that the Kremlin would need to know what Trump wanted in a deal to stop the war before the country moves forward.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on two days ago that at least 200,000 peacekeepers would be needed under any agreement.
Zelensky added that any peacekeeping force for his country would have to include US troops to pose a realistic deterrent to Russia.
“It can’t be without the United States. Even if some European friends think it can be, no, it will not be,” he said, adding that no-one else would risk such a move without the US.
