US President Donald Trump on Tuesday indicated he may impose fresh sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin refuses to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“Sounds likely,” Trump told reporters at the White House, when asked if the United States would apply additional sanctions on Moscow if the Russian president did not come to the table.
Prior to his inauguration on Monday, Trump vowed to end the Ukraine war immediately upon taking office, raising expectations he would leverage aid to force Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.
In unusually critical remarks of Putin, Trump said on Monday that the Russian president “should make a deal.”
“I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal.”
Trump added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told him that he wanted a peace agreement.
