President Trump has warned that he will impose very damaging tariffs on Russia and Ukraine if the two sides do not make progress in peace talks.
“Thousands of people, mostly young people, are dying every week. If I could, I would stop that by imposing sanctions, using a very strong tariff system, causing very severe damage to Russia, Ukraine or whoever is involved,” US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on August 26.
When asked by reporters if he was ready to impose sanctions on Russia if it did not cease fire, Trump said he was considering “very serious things and would do them if I had to, because I want the conflict to end.”
“We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic sanctions because we’re not going into a world war,” Trump said. “It would be an economic war. This would be very bad and not good for Russia, I don’t want it to happen.”
Trump said it “takes two to dance” and said that “President Zelensky is not completely innocent.” He criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, for allowing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to erupt.
“Nobody goes into a conflict thinking they’re going to lose. I’m sure Ukraine thought they were going to win. They thought they were going to beat someone 15 times stronger. Biden should not have let that happen,” Trump said.
Russia and Ukraine have not commented on the report.
Trump is seeking to broker direct talks between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine in an effort to end the conflict that has lasted more than three years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed in principle to such talks, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has not.
President Trump on August 21 set a two-week time frame to assess the prospects for Russia-Ukraine peace talks, saying the US could choose a different approach after this deadline but did not give details.