President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would shorten the deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a peace deal with Ukraine to 10 to 12 days and threatened to levy heavy import tariffs against the country as Russia continued to bomb Ukrainian cities.
The statement walks back from the initial 50-day deadline Trump gave Putin on July 14, which would have expired in early September. The President then warned Putin that Russian exports could face tariffs “at about 100%” if a ceasefire deal does not come through.
“There’s no reason they’re waiting,” Trump told reporters in Scotland during a meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The President has been notably public with his disappointment with Russia, which fired missiles at Ukraine on July 21, killing at least two people and injuring more than a dozen others at a Kyiv subway station and setting an empty kindergarten on fire, despite ongoing negotiations between the two countries.
“All of a sudden missiles are flying into Kyiv… what’s that all about?” Trump added, saying that it seemed like a ceasefire deal would happen three different times. “This has happened on too many occasions and I don’t like it.”
Asked by TIME on July 14 how far he’d be willing to go to defend Ukraine if Putin escalated attacks despite the 50-day deadline, Trump refused to answer: “I want to get the war settled…I have a problem, and [Vice President] J.D. [Vance] has a problem—they’re not Americans dying, but there are a lot of people dying and on something that should be settled… We want to defend our country, but you know, ultimately, having a strong Europe is a very good thing.”
Russia rejected Trump’s 50-day deadline when the White House first announced it earlier this month, calling it “unacceptable.”
“I’m not so interested in talking anymore,” Trump said Monday of Putin. “He talks—we have such nice conversations and such respectful and nice conversations and people die the following night with a missile going into a town.”
In July, the President pledged to send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine to protect against foreign attacks. Trump’s stance is remarkable given a previous public disagreement between the President and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in February. Trump has previously expressed frustration with the billions in aid the U.S. has sent to Ukraine.
The President previously promised to end the Ukraine war within his first 24 hours in office.
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