Donald Trump has warned he will impose high tariffs and further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine. Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to settle the war he was doing Russia and its president a "very big favour".
He refuses to accept Ukraine joining Nato, the military alliance of Western countries. ~ "I'm going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR".
"We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better.
Trump's former special representative for Ukraine said Trump's threat of more serious sanctions on Russia "gives a signal to Vladimir Putin this is going to get worse, not better". ~ "We should incentivise Putin to say, 'OK, it's time actually to have a ceasefire.'" ~ Currently, the main Russian exports to the US are phosphate-based fertilisers and platinum. Volker said the Russian economy could take "substantial" damage if Trump chose to preserve or strengthen the toughest US sanctions so far". ~ TV editor Margarita Simonyan, who is stridently pro-Putin, has begun talking of "realistic" conditions for ending the war, which she suggests could include halting the fighting along the current frontline. ~ In Wednesday's social media post, Trump also couched his threat of tariffs and tighter sanctions in words of "love" for the Russian people and highlighted his respect for Soviet losses in World War Two – a near-sacred topic for Putin. But Trump massively overestimated the numbers and appeared to think the USSR was Russia alone. In reality, millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens also lost their lives.