Former U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that Russia could face heavy sanctions or tariffs if peace negotiations over Ukraine fail to make progress.
On August 22, Trump said he was “not happy” about Russia’s strike on an American-owned factory in western Ukraine. “I’m not happy about anything related to that war,” he stated.
However, the U.S. President emphasized that he wanted to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would meet. “I think I’ll know Russia’s attitude, and frankly, Ukraine’s as well. We need to look at the stance of both sides,” he said.
Trump declared that he would decide what actions the U.S. would take after the two-week deadline he set, stressing that they would be very important decisions. “It could be sanctions or heavy tariffs, or both. Or we might do nothing at all and say it’s their war,” he added.
In an interview on August 21, the U.S. President set a two-week timeframe to assess the prospects for Russia–Ukraine peace talks. He has repeatedly set two-week deadlines related to the Ukraine conflict and other issues. At the end of May, he established a similar timeframe to evaluate whether President Putin was serious about moving toward a peace agreement.
Many of those deadlines have not materialized. Russia has ruled out the possibility of an early meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky, even though President Trump said earlier this week that he was arranging a Russia–Ukraine summit.