Trump Says He Will Cut Timeline for Putin to Reach Truce

US President Donald Trump said he would shorten his timeline for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to reach a truce with Ukraine or face potential economic penalties, ramping up pressure on Moscow to bring the fighting to a halt.

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters in Scotland on Monday during talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

“I’ll announce it probably tonight or tomorrow,” Trump added. “But there’s no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is,” expressing frustration with Putin for rebuffing previous calls for a ceasefire.

Trump on July 14 initially announced a 50-day deadline on Russia — which would have fallen on Sept. 2 — threatening to impose stiff economic penalties on Putin if he did not end hostilities with Ukraine. That threat failed to bring an end to the fighting as Putin has stepped up missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.

The Kremlin hasn’t commented publicly so far on Trump’s new deadline. Russia’s ruble weakened more than 2% to breach 81 per dollar in Moscow, its lowest since mid-May, following Trump’s announcement.

“So what I’m doing is we’re going to do secondary sanctions, unless we make a deal, and we might make a deal, I don’t know,” Trump added Monday.

Trump in July had said he would impose 100% tariffs on Russia if they did not halt the fighting. Officials have cast secondary levies that would fall on countries who buy Russian exports such as oil. Washington and other capitals allied with Kyiv view such oil purchases as a form of tacit support for Russia, helping to bolster its economy and undercut sanctions. 

Following through on his secondary sanctions threat would hit India and China, two major trading partners, as Trump is seeking to negotiate a trade deal to lower tariffs and other barriers with New Delhi and with negotiators currently in Stockholm to extend a truce with Beijing.

“I think reducing it is partly a reaction to the fact that the initial 50 days was perceived as slightly too long,” said Charles Lichfield, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center in Washington. “There’s always an instinct to cut Putin a bit of slack to give him a bit of time.”

He added that the Trump administration isn’t likely to impose the threatened tariffs of well above 100% on big buyers of Russian energy like China, India and the EU amid complex trade talks with them. “I think everyone sort of sees through that,” he said, noting that a more gradual approach starting at rates of 10%-20% may be possible.

Frustration With Putin

Trump’s latest threat — and shortened timeline for Putin to comply — highlight his growing frustration with the Russian leader.

“I’m not so interested in talking anymore,” Trump said Monday. “He talks. We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a — with a missile going into a town.”

Trump returned to office vowing to quickly end Russia’s war in Ukraine, citing his relationship with Putin. Those efforts have failed to materialize with Moscow only responding with maximalist demands for Ukrainian territory and declining calls for face-to-face talks between Putin and his counterpart, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Trump initially focused his ire on Zelenskiy as an obstacle to peace but in recent weeks has signaled growing impatience with Putin, accusing him of not being sincere about wanting to end the war despite multiple calls and months of diplomacy.

NATO allies are also moving to ramp up pressure on Putin, with Germany in advanced talks with the US and other allies to help deliver additional Patriot air-defense systems to Ukraine. Zelenskiy’s government has made air defense a top priority as weeks of Russian attacks take their toll on Ukrainian cities. 

While talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul led to prisoner exchanges, there has been no progress on ending the conflict sparked by a Russian invasion in February 2022.

Trump’s sanctions threats also echo legislation in Congress that would impose 500% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas such as China and India. The president has threatened economic pressure against Putin in the past but has held off, suggesting that he wanted to preserve negotiations.

“Russia could be so rich, it could be so rich, it could be thriving like practically no other country,” Trump said, adding that Putin had expressed interest in doing trade deals. “He talks about it all the time.”

“They have a lot of valuable things,” he continued, floating Russian rare earth mineral resources as a potential trade target. “They have serious rare earth, right? They have just about every form you can have.”

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