United States President Donald Trump said he is prepared to initiate phase two of sanctions against Russia if peace negotiations aren’t made.
This is the closest he has come to suggesting he is on the verge of ramping up sanctions against Moscow or its oil buyers in the war against Ukraine.
As he left the White House to head to the U.S. Open in New York, the president was asked if he was ready to move to the “second phase” of sanctions against Russia, to which he responded, “Yeah, I am”.
Prior to this, Trump had repeatedly threatened Moscow with further sanctions but withheld details as he pursued peace talks.
The U.S. President has continually been frustrated by his inability to bring an end to the fighting after he predicted he would be able to end it quickly when he took office in January.
This comes after Trump said the U.S. would be willing to offer “maximum protection for Ukraine skies” as postwar security and suggested that the EU should join the U.S. in the slowdown of imports of Russian oil and gas to half of Russia’s "war machine by economic means" in a call with the coalition of the willing.
Trump has also defended his up to 25% reciprocal tariff increase on India for buying Russian oil, despite not doing the same to China, which is a major buyer of Russian energy exports.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed to importance of increasing pressure on Moscow and “all countries who trade with Russia”.
“The Russian economy is pressured and all the countries who trade with Russia are pressured, and we will continue with this,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “secondary sanctions and special trade tariffs” can help.
Meanwhile, Trump’s special envoy said Russia’s attacks are escalating following its largest attack of the war overnight, deploying over 800 drones and striking a government building in Kyiv for the first time.
