US President Donald Trump sent harsh messages to Russia in a post he shared on the social media platform Truth Social. Reiterating his threat of high-level sanctions and additional customs duties on imports if Russia does not reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, Trump said, “I don’t want to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people and I’ve always had very good relations with (Russian President) President Putin.”
Trump said that Russia’s World War II has ended with Russia’s imposition of high-level sanctions and additional customs duties on imports. He said that Russia helped win World War II and that it should not be forgotten that approximately 60 million people lost their lives in the process. Trump said, “Having said all that, I will do a huge favor to Russia and President Putin, whose economy is collapsing. Make a deal and stop this ridiculous war. The situation will only get worse. If an agreement is not reached soon, I will have no choice but to impose high taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything Russia sells to the US and other participating countries.”
Trump did not give details about which countries would join the possible US sanctions initiative against Russia in his statement. Trump, who promised to end the war in Ukraine in one day during his election campaign, said in his message today, “Let’s put this war, which would never have started if I were president, behind us. We can do it the easy way or the hard way. But the easy way is always better.”
The US press reported that the Trump administration was working on a sanctions strategy to find a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine. It was claimed in the news that Trump’s team was considering a sanctions policy similar to those imposed on Iran and Venezuela in order to put pressure on Russia.
“He has to make a deal”
In a statement he made after taking office for the second time as US President on Monday, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was “destroying Russia” by not making a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Trump, who also said he was preparing to meet with Putin, said, “He has to make a deal. I think Russia is going to face a big problem.”
On the other hand, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in December last year that the number of soldiers his country lost in the war was 43 thousand and 370 thousand soldiers were injured. Zelenskyy stated that according to his calculations, the number of soldiers Russia lost was 198 thousand and more than 550 thousand Russian soldiers were injured.