President Donald Trump signalled his exasperation with Russia's failure to engage in full-scale peace talks with Ukraine by bringing forward a deadline for the imposition of punishing sanctions.
The US leader spoke on Monday in Scotland where he indicated his new deadline for Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table over the Ukraine invasion would be between 10 and 12 days. Asked by reporters how long he would set for the new deadline, Mr Trump said he had been let down by Mr Putin after direct talks.
“I am going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today," he ”aid. “There is no reason in waiting.”
On July 14 Mr Trump initially announced a 50-day deadline for Russia, which would have expired on September 2. Now he is threatening to impose stiff economic penalties on Mr Putin if there is no end to the war with Ukraine. Not only has there not been an end to the fighting, but Russian forces have stepped up missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
“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.
Announcing the offer to Russia, Mr Trump had warned he would impose 100 per cent tariffs and other punitive economic measures on Russia if they did not stop the fighting. Officials have cast secondary levies that would fall on countries who buy Russian goods 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, while Mr Trump is seeking to negotiate a trade deal to lower tariffs and other barriers with New Delhi, and with negotiators in Stockholm to extend a truce with Beijing.
Mr 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 any more,” Mr Trump said on 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.
“I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end he kills people. I'm not so interested in talking (to him) any more,” he added. Ukraine swiftly praised the US President's stand and thanked Mr Trump for “standing firm and delivering a clear message of peace through strength”.
“When America leads with strength, others think twice,” Ukraine's presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media.
The comments came during a trip to Scotland by Mr Trump, who met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who focused on ending the suffering in Gaza and reviving stalled ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump promised to use his relationship with Mr Putin to end the three-year war in a single day, but that has not happened. Moscow has responded to his efforts with maximalist demands for Ukrainian territory, and by declining calls for face-to-face talks between Mr Putin and the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Kremlin on Monday said it was not ruling out a meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Trump in September in China. Mr Putin is due to visit China in early September for celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
“If it so happens that in the end the US President decides to visit China during those days, then of course such a meeting cannot in theory be excluded,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
