President Donald Trump said he will reduce a previous 50-day deadline he issued to Vladimir Putin to reach a peace deal with Ukraine after admitting the Russian leader seems to have no intention of complying with it.
While speaking to reporters alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his visit to Scotland, Trump said he was “disappointed” with Putin and warned the Russian president the already arbitrary deadline ending Sept. 3 he gave under threat of possible U.S. sanctions will be decreased by weeks.
“We thought we had [a ceasefire deal] 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,” Trump said. “You have bodies lying all over the street, and I say ‘that’s not the way to do it.’
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him. I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number, because I think I already know the answer to what’s going to happen,” Trump added.
Trump, who long vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict within one day of returning to the White House, is now saying Moscow has a deadline of 10 to 12 days for taking steps in agreeing a ceasefire, reported Reuters.
Trump warned Putin on July 14 that Russia will face “very severe tariffs” of up to 100 percent unless Moscow agrees to a ceasefire and stop killing civilians within 50 days.
The threat has been widely ignored by Putin, who has been trying to take over Ukraine since Feb. 2022. Shortly after Trump issued his original 50-day threat, Russia bombarded the Ukrainian cities of Kryvyi Rih, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, and Dobropillia, in a deadly large-scale drone and missile attacks.
Other high-profile Russian officials even mocked Trump for issuing the threat alongside the 50-day deadline.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and close Putin ally, posted on X on July 15.
It is unclear if Trump’s original plan of imposing 100 percent tariffs against Russia if they do not meet the new deadline is still in place, or if harsher sanctions are now threatened.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
