National Defense

Trump Drastically Shortens Ceasefire Deadline For Putin

Trump White House Archives/Creative Commons/Flickr

President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he would drastically shorten the deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to a ceasefire deal in Ukraine.

Trump said the deadline for Putin to make peace in Ukraine would shrink from 50 days to “10 or 12 days” during his meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. If Putin does not come to a deal, Trump threatened to impose sweeping secondary tariffs and sanctions against key Russian industries.

“I’m gonna make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters Monday. “There’s no reason they’re waiting… it’s 50 days, I want to be generous, [but] we just don’t see any progress being made.”

Congress is also pursuing a bipartisan bill that would allow Trump to levy 500% tariffs against Russian uranium, gas and oil on top of the secondary tariffs.

Trump has accused Putin in recent months of stalling peace talks in order to continue prosecuting his war, which has intensified in recent days with continued drone and missile exchanges from both sides. Trump also resumed shipping weapons to Ukraine on July 11 via NATO as a way to push the Kremlin to make peace.

Putin has reportedly shrugged off Trump’s threats, remaining confident that he can resist economic measures from the West. Russia is demanding that any deal would have to include recognition of much of the conquered land captured during the war, but Ukraine has poured cold water on any notion of ceding ground to the Kremlin.

“Too many people are dying, it’s a really bloody war,” Trump told reporters. “You’d think based on common sense he’d want to make a deal, but we’ll find out.”

The State Department deferred to the president’s comments.