Trump threatens Putin with taxes, tariffs and sanctions over Ukraine war | US foreign policy

Donald Trump has threatened Russia with taxes, tariffs and sanctions if a deal is not reached soon to end the war in Ukraine, as the new US president tries to increase pressure on Moscow to open talks with Kiev.

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday that Russia’s economy was failing and called on Vladimir Putin to “sit down now and stop this ridiculous war”.

Without a deal, Trump said, “I have no choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything sold by Russia to the United States and various other participating countries.”

The statement marks Trump’s most detailed effort yet to end the war in Ukraine. During the election campaign, he said he would end the war “in 24 hours” if elected.

“Let’s get this war, which would never have started if I were president, over! We can do it the easy way or the hard way — and the easy way is always better,” he said.

Trump promised during his presidential campaign to end the war before he even took office. Asked Monday how long it would take to do that, he said: “I have to talk to President Putin. We’ll have to figure that 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 an 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 penchant for flattery, Putin has twice described him as brave, citing the July 13 assassination attempt on him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In contrast, Trump’s rhetoric toward Russia has been tougher, marking some of his strongest public criticism yet of Putin and his leadership.

Asked about the war in Ukraine shortly after his inauguration on Monday, Trump said his Russian counterpart destroyed Russia by refusing to negotiate a ceasefire.

“He can’t be excited, he’s not feeling 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.”

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Trump nevertheless wrote on Wednesday that he “always had a very good relationship” with Putin and that he “didn’t seek to hurt Russia”.

Trump’s latest statements highlight the unease felt by many in Moscow’s elite over 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 given Putin an ultimatum.

“As I’ve said before, it’s better to prepare for the worst. Soon we’ll look back on the Biden period with nostalgia, like a thaw,” he said.

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Russia’s deputy foreign minister told state media earlier Wednesday that Moscow saw a “small window of opportunity” to strike deals with the new Trump administration.

However, the Kremlin has signaled that it is not in a hurry to sign a peace agreement.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyanskiy, gave a cautious response to Trump’s comments. “It is not just a question of ending the war. It is first and foremost a question of addressing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” he said.

“So we have to see what the ‘deal’ means in President Trump’s understanding.”

Putin has repeatedly laid out a maximalist stance on ending the war in recent months, demanding that Ukraine not join Nato and that it adopt a neutral status and undergo some degree of demilitarization. He has insisted the West lift its sanctions against Russia and said he wanted to retain control of Crimea and the four Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow in 2022.

In a show of strength, Putin held talks in the past few days with two of his most important allies in his fight against the West. He hosted Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Moscow on Friday and spoke via video link to Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday.

Trump’s latest statement on the war in Ukraine notably omits any mention of providing additional weapons to Kiev, instead signaling a shift toward deploying economic measures against Moscow.

Given the shrinking trade ties between the US and Russia and the many sanctions against Russia already in place, the effectiveness of Trump’s direct threat of tariffs is uncertain. Trade between the two countries in the first 11 months of 2024 was just $3.4 billion. By comparison, annual trade between the US and Europe is around $1.5tn.

Trump administration officials have previously indicated they believe the United States 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 he had the resources to survive Ukraine.

“A peace deal on Russian terms would save significant resources, but in the absence of such a deal, Putin is prepared to fight as long as it takes,” she wrote on X.

She also wrote that Russia’s current economic situation was unlikely to force Putin to negotiate with Ukraine. “If the Kremlin concludes that there is no favorable deal with Trump, they will likely focus on prolonging the conflict,” she added.