Although he promised to end the war in ukraine In his first 24 hours as president, donald trump He practically ignored the issue during his intense inauguration day.
He barely made any mention when asked by the press, in which – surprisingly for some – he criticized Vladimir Putin.
This Wednesday, however, he seemed to remember the Ukrainian conflict better with comments in which he directly threatened Moscow if it does not reach an agreement to stop the war.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no choice but to impose high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the United States and several other countries,” the Republican noted on his Truth Social network.
“Let’s end this war, which would never have started if I had been president!” he added. aforementioned by cnn.
Trump affirmed that he does not seek to harm Russia and that he has always had a “very good relationship with President Putin,” but he made it clear that if the Kremlin is not willing to stop the weapons, his government could force it to do so.
“We can do it the easy way or the hard way,” he said.
Such statements come after he stated on Monday that Putin “is not doing well” and that with his efforts to maintain the war he is destroying Russia.
In addition, he assured that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “wants to reach an agreement,” but said he did not know if Putin wants the same. “Maybe not. “I don’t know,” he said.
In this regard, he announced that he would be able to meet “very soon” with his Russian counterpart to discuss these and other issues.
Russia is waiting for “concrete initiatives” towards Ukraine from the new Trump Administration
The Russian response
After Trump’s statements, Russia’s first response came not in the voice of Putin, or in that of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but in the deputy ambassador to the UN, Dimitri Polyanskiy.
“It is not simply the question of ending the war. “It is above all the question of addressing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis,” the diplomat told the press.
In addition, Polyanskiy commented that Moscow needs clarity about what the agreement advocated by the US president would entail and pointed to Trump’s responsibility in achieving an agreement that is favorable to Russian interests.
“We have to see what ‘deal’ means in President Trump’s reasoning,” he said.
“He is not responsible for what the United States has been doing in Ukraine since 2014, turning it into an ‘anti-Russian’ country and arming it for war with us, but it is now in his power to stop this malicious policy,” he added, aforementioned by BBC World.
The Russian authorities have been in favor of Trump mediating the conflict and reaching an agreement with kyiv, as long as their demands are met, such as maintaining control of the territory already won and that Ukraine does not join NATO and keep neutral.
But while this possible negotiation arrives, Russian forces continue to advance into Ukrainian territory, despite the repeated military aid from the Biden Administration and Europe to the Zelensky government and the extensive battery of Western sanctions against Moscow.
