Donald Trump has said he was “offended” with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine’s approach to a ceasefire, threatening to collect tariffs on Moscow’s oil exports if the Russian leader does not agree to the ceasefire within a month.
In a telephone interview with NBC News, the US president showed that he would collect 25% or 50% tariffs that would affect the countries that buy Russia’s oil.
“If Russia and I can’t get a contract to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine and if it’s Russia’s fault, it may not be, but if it’s Russia’s fault, I’m going to put secondary tariffs on oil.
“That means that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t operate in the US. There is a 25% tariff on all oil, and there is a 25-50 point tariff on all oil.”
A sudden change in direction occurred after Putin tried to attack Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy on Friday. Putin, who appeared on Russian television, had suggested that Ukraine could be placed under a temporary future government to organize new elections before negotiating a peace deal.
Trump previously called the Ukrainian president a dictator, but on Sunday he said: “I was very angry, I was angry,” Putin said, “I’ve begun to enter Zelensky’s credibility.
He said, “New leadership means you’re not going to make a deal for a long time,” and he wanted to put pressure on the Kremlin.
Trump reiterated, “If there’s no deal, I’m going to put secondary sanctions on Russia if I think it’s Russia’s fault,” but then showed that if there is progress in the ceasefire, he will soon retreat.
If Putin “does the right thing,” Trump said, “the anger will go away soon.”
The US President also uses the same short interview to tell Iran that if “they don’t make a deal”, “there’s a bombing. They’ll bomb things they’ve never seen before” to curb the nuclear weapons program. Officials from both countries were engaged in negotiations, he added.
He also stated fresh economic sanctions as an alternative. “If they don’t make a deal, I could put secondary tariffs on them,” Trump said. “I am considering impose secondary tariffs on Iran before the transaction is signed.”
Secondary tariffs are a novel idea. The US last week introduced a 25% tariff on countries purchasing crude oil and liquid fuels from Venezuela. Its biggest fuel is China after President Trump accused President Donald Trump of sending Latin American countries to the US under immigration cover.
According to the International Energy Agency, Russian oil exports have already been subject to various sanctions from the US, the UK, the EU and other G7 countries, making China and India the two biggest buyers. What is not yet clear is whether the proposed measures will take effect once they come into effect.
Finland has shown that it may have played a role in Trump’s intervention. A day before the interview, Trump spent time with his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb at his Mar Lago resort in Florida. The two men had breakfast and lunch and played a round of golf on an informal visit, the Stubb office said.
“My message in my conversation with the President is that there is a need for a ceasefire and a deadline for a ceasefire. After that, I have to pay the price to break the ceasefire,” Stubb told the Guardian.
“So we need a number one, a ceasefire date. For example, we hope that it will be Easter on April 20th, when President Trump took office for three months. By then we either have not been accepted by Russia or we need results.
In a previous interview with NBC on Saturday, Trump said: “I’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” he claimed, “It’s a good chance that I can do that without military strength… but I won’t take anything off the table.”
During the campaign, Trump said he could end the Ukrainian War within 24 hours, and commented that he recently claimed it was “a bit ironic.” It proved his elusive tactics to force Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire.
Trump and his vice president, J.D. Vance, denounced Zelensky in an oval office a month ago, after which Washington cut off intelligence news and military aid. Kiev then registered in the principle of a 30-day ceasefire if the Kremlin traveled back and forth in return for restoration of intelligence and aid.
Earlier this month, Putin was in favor of a ceasefire, but said that “it has nuances” and that the halt of the fight should “remove the underlying cause of this crisis.”
The Russian president and his allies have called for the demilitarization of Ukraine, claiming that the presence of Western forces as a peacekeeping force is unacceptable, and demanding the full annexation of the four regions.
Two people were killed, and 25 people were injured in Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, in the Russian attacks on Saturday night and Sunday morning. The military hospital was attacked inside the building. Ukrainian public staff accused them of saying it was “deliberately targeted artillery fire,” a rare approval by military victims.
Trump’s intervention followed a difficult week for the White House, during which time he was criticised for discussing attacks on Yemen’s Hooty rebels on a signal messaging app that has not been approved by the Pentagon.
A very sensitive discussion, including a bombing program, was leaked because Atlantic journalists were accidentally added to the chat by US national security adviser Mike Waltz.
