Trump admits Russian sanctions may not work

Telegraph

3 days ago

Donald Trump has admitted that imposing heavy sanctions against Russia and its trading partners may not force Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Just 24 hours after he cut his 50-day ceasefire deadline down to '10 or 12 days', Mr Trump accepted that Putin wants to keep fighting and that financial penalties 'may or may not affect them'.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the president reiterated that the US could impose 'tariffs and stuff' against Russia in 10 days.
However, admitting that the plan may not work, he said: 'I don't know if it's going to affect Russia, because he wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going,' referring to Putin.
'But we're going to put tariffs and the various things you put on. It may or may not affect them. But it could.'
Mr Trump said on Monday that he would give Russia about '10 or 12 days' to end the war before imposing heavy sanctions on Russia's trading partners.
That was down from the 50 days he had given Russia to end the war, which would have given Putin until Sept 5.
Mr Trump's rhetoric against Putin has been shifting in recent months as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have failed to bring about any meaningful progress.
The two sides met for a third round of negotiations in Istanbul last week, but like the two previous rounds, they only agreed to exchange prisoners of war and repatriate the dead.
'Bodies lying all over the street'
The president has also grown increasingly frustrated at the level of intensifying attacks against major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
Just hours after Mr Trump threatened to impose sanctions against Russia, Putin's forces launched a wave of strikes across Ukraine, killing 27 people and injuring dozens more.
'We thought we had that [ceasefire] settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,' he said at Trump Turnberry in Scotland on Monday.
'You have bodies lying all over the street, and I say that's not the way to do it. So we'll see what happens with that.'
An initial plan for imposing sanctions on Russia came from Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator, who threatened to put 500 per cent tariffs on Moscow and its trading partners.
But Mr Trump appears to have watered down those threats, suggesting last month the tariff level would sit at around 100 per cent.
The hope is that Russia's key economic partners, including China and India, will force Putin into ending the war due to the cost of the tariffs.
But a recent report found that China and India have already found ways to disregard or even evade Western sanctions, including by using front companies.
Both nations have been found to be directly contributing to Russia's war effort, which includes a $1.4 million explosive compound sales agreement between a private Indian company and two Russian companies.