Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs on Russia if an agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine cannot be reached within 50 days.
The US President made the statement during a meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
“We will impose very severe tariffs if we do not reach an agreement within 50 days,” Mr. Trump said.
He did not provide specific details about how the duties would be applied.
“I use trading for different purposes,” he added.
“But it's great for ending wars.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday amid growing expectations of a possible change in the Trump administration's policy on the three-year-old war.
Mr Rutte also planned to hold talks with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as with members of Congress.
Mr Trump has made ending the war a top diplomatic priority and has increasingly expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin's unyielding stance on US-led peace initiatives.
Mr Trump has long maintained that he has a good relationship with Mr Putin and has said repeatedly since taking office in January that Russia is more willing to negotiate a peace deal than Ukraine.
At the same time, Mr Trump accused Mr Zelensky of prolonging the conflict and called him a “dictator without elections”.
But Russia’s relentless assault on civilian targets in Ukraine has worn thin. In April, he called on Putin to “STOP!” as Kyiv was being bombed with deadly missiles, and the following month, he wrote on social media that the Russian leader had “completely lost his mind!” as the bombing continued.
“I'm very disappointed in President Putin. I thought he was a serious man,” Trump said late Sunday. “He talks nice and then he bombs people at night. We don't like that.”
Mr Zelensky said he and Mr Trump's special envoy, retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, had “productive conversations” about strengthening Ukraine's air defenses, joint arms production and purchases of American weapons with European countries, and the possibility of tougher international sanctions against the Kremlin.
“We are counting on the leadership of the United States, as it is obvious that Moscow will not stop until its… ambitions are stopped by force,” Mr. Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Later on Monday, Mr Zelensky
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
