(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump said on Monday that he was giving Russia a new deadline of “10 or 12 days” to end the war in Ukraine and said he was no longer interested in speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 — 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters while meeting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. “There’s no reason in waiting. … We just don’t see any progress being made.”
On July 14, Trump said Russia had 50 days to end the war, putting the deadline on September 2. At the time, he threatened to impose 100% tariffs on Russia and its major trading partners. The implication is that the US could impose significant tariffs on China and India, which would have a significant impact on the US and global economy.
“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,” the president said on Monday.
Russia has made clear that it’s committed to achieving its war goals despite the ultimatum from Trump and that it wouldn’t settle for a peace deal that doesn’t address its core demands, which include the recognition of the four oblasts Moscow annexed in 2022 as Russian territory and Ukrainian neutrality.
Ukrainian leadership has also made clear that it won’t concede to Russia’s territorial demands as long as the US and NATO continue supporting the war. Last week, the Trump administration approved a series of potential arms deals for Ukraine, and he recently announced a plan for NATO countries to purchase more US weapons to fuel the proxy war.
While Trump has continued supporting Ukraine, he has broken from the Biden administration’s policy of cutting off virtually all high-level contact with Russia and has held several calls with Putin. However, Trump suggested that the communication with Russia’s president might not continue.
“I’m not so interested in talking anymore,” Trump said 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.”
For its part, the Kremlin remains open to dialogue with the US, and there are rumors that Trump and Putin could meet in person in Beijing if the US president attends an event marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in September. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that there were currently no preparations for a Trump-Putin summit, but noted that it was possible if both leaders were in Beijing at the same time.
“If it happens that the US president decides to visit China on the same dates, then, in theory, such a meeting could take place, as long as both heads of state are in the same city,” Peskov said.
