US President Gives Putin 50 Days to Reach Ceasefire Before Activating Sanctions
US President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will impose 100% “secondary tariffs” on Russia—specifically targeting Moscow’s trading partners—within 50 days if it does not reach an agreement with Ukraine to initiate a ceasefire and a peace process to end the war.
In a media briefing, accompanied by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump cited as his main reason his discontent with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over the lack of progress toward ending a conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“If we don’t reach an agreement soon, we will impose very severe tariffs in 50 days. Tariffs at 100%. You can call them secondary tariffs,” the US president threatened.
Trump’s announcement has nothing to do with the bipartisan proposal being considered by the US Congress, which raises tariffs to 500%. “The Republicans are moving forward in the Senate very energetically, but I’m not sure we need it yet, and I wouldn’t want them to waste their time either,” the US president said.
The president devoted a good part of his speech to criticizing Putin for the lack of progress. “I’m disappointed in him because it looked like two months ago we might have reached an agreement, but we didn’t quite get there,” according to Trump, who went on to list his, he claimed, successes in his international negotiations before lamenting that “the only one I haven’t gotten anywhere with is Russia.”
“So, if I were Vladimir Putin today, I would reconsider whether I shouldn’t take the negotiations on Ukraine more seriously than I am now. But if I were Ukraine, I think I’m getting some great news,” said Trump, who went so far as to point to Putin as responsible for the Russian casualties and victims of the war.
“If anyone in Moscow is listening to this: 100,000 Russians dead since January. That’s what President Putin is doing right now,” he argued about the Russian leader, a leader who “has deceived a lot of people for years,” including former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden. “But he hasn’t fooled me. And there comes a time when you have to move from words to actions,” he threatened.
