Washington — President Trump said Friday that he is “strongly considering” imposing sanctions and tariffs on Russia until it agrees to a ceasefire and peace deal that would halt Moscow’s three-year war with Ukraine.
Mr. Trump’s post on his social media platform, Truth Social, appears to be in response to drone and missile attacks launched on Ukrainian energy facilities Friday. The president said that because Russia is “absolutely ‘pounding'” Ukraine, “I am strongly considering large scale banking sanctions, sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a cease fire and final settlement agreement on peace is reached.”
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” Mr. Trump wrote.
The president’s threats of tariffs and sanctions are the first indication he is weighing adverse action against Russia since his tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House one week ago. But Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he is “finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine, and they don’t have the cards.”
“I find that in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier dealing with Russia — which is surprising — because they have all the cards,” he said.
The president acknowledged that Ukraine is taking “tremendous punishment” from Russia’s air assaults but appeared to defend Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling reporters that he is “doing what anybody else would do.”
“I think he wants to get it stopped and settled and think he’s hitting it harder than he’s been hitting them,” Mr. Trump said of Putin. “I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended, and I think Ukraine wants to get it ended.”
Mr. Trump and Zelenskyy were on track last week to sign a key rare earth minerals agreement and hold a news conference at the White House, but the Ukrainian leader’s visit ended abruptly after an Oval Office meeting between the two and top U.S. and Ukrainian officials became openly contentious.
The president told Zelenskyy at the meeting that he should reach a ceasefire deal with Russia or “we’re out,” and Vice President JD Vance accused Ukraine’s leader of being “disrespectful” and not sufficiently grateful for U.S. support of its efforts to combat Russia’s aggression.
In the wake of the meeting, Mr. Trump paused U.S. military aid to Ukraine and intelligence sharing.
But negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine appear to be resuming, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House national security adviser Michael Waltz set to head to Saudi Arabia next week for discussions with a Ukrainian delegation, Waltz said Friday.
“We had initial engagement with the Russians, the Ukrainians had a great opportunity to bind our economies together through that mineral deal,” Waltz told reporters at the White House. “Unfortunately that didn’t go so well, but we think we’re going to get things back on track.” Mr. Trump also said NATO Secretary General Rutte would be coming for a visit next week.
Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters Wednesday that the goal is to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire.”
Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a speech Thursday that the Trump administration has kept enhanced sanctions on Russia in place “and will not hesitate to go ‘all in,’ should it provide leverage in peace negotiations,” according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said the first step toward achieving peace is for Russia to stop its attacks.
“Ukraine is ready to pursue the path to peace, and it is Ukraine that strives for peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war,” he wrote on social media Friday.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-russia-ukraine-war-sanctions-tariffs/
