"Will only get worse"

Trump threatens Putin: end of war, otherwise punitive tariffs

"I love the Russian people and have always had a good relationship with President Putin," said the US president.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/AP)

If a peace agreement with Ukraine is not reached soon, US President Donald Trump wants to introduce high taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything that Russia sells to the US and other countries.

"I don't want to hurt Russia", Trump writes on the Truth Social platform. "I love the Russian people and have always had a good relationship with President Putin," the Republican confessed.

He recalled that Russia "helped the United States win World War II and lost almost 60 million lives in the process". Now he will do Russia, whose economy is collapsing, and the Kremlin chief a big favor. "Stop this ridiculous war!" the US head of state demanded. "It will only get worse," he warned urgently.

I don't want to hurt the Russians.

US-Präsident Donald Trump

Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/AFP/POOL/Jim WATSON, APA/Fabrice COFFRINI

US President intensified his warnings to Putin
The US President, who took office on Monday, thus intensified his warnings to Putin. He had already threatened the Russian head of state with new "sanctions" on Tuesday, albeit in a less prominent form. Trump had told journalists that he would "probably" tighten sanctions against Russia if Putin did not agree to a deal to end the war.

Trump's post on Truth Social:

(Bild: @realDonaldTrump)

Trump had announced during the election campaign that he would end the Ukraine war within "24 hours", later setting himself a timeframe of six months to do so.

Trump open to negotiations
However, Trump had previously also shown himself to be open to negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Whenever Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi were ready, he would meet with them, Trump said at the White House in Washington on Tuesday. When asked whether he would impose sanctions if Putin was not prepared to negotiate, Trump replied: "Sounds likely."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi would like to see a lasting end to the fighting.

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Selenskyj would like to have peace, said Trump. "But it takes two to tango." Before his return to the White House, the new US President had announced that he wanted to end the war, which has now lasted almost three years, in the shortest possible time. However, Trump's exact ideas are still unclear.

Russia, which sees itself militarily on the road to victory, only wants to accept a de facto subjugation of its neighboring country. Selensky hopes that the new US president will help to bring the Russian war of aggression to a just end. The Ukrainian emphasizes that a sustainable end is more important than a quick end.

Trump believes China has an important role to play
In Trump's opinion, China could also play an important role in settling the bloody conflict. However, he criticized Chinese head of state Xi Jinping for not having done much in this regard. "He has a lot of power - just like we have a lot of power." He had told Xi: "You should sort it out."

Trump again criticized the fact that the USA was being disproportionately financially responsible for the conflict and called for greater support from the European Union. He repeated his earlier call for NATO partner countries to significantly increase their defense spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP). "It affects them more than us," Trump emphasized. "We have an ocean in between, don't we? This little thing called the ocean."