Trump urged Russia to reach a peace agreement, warning that "things will only get worse." He threatened with taxes and sanctions if no resolution is found.
He wrote about it on Truth Social.
“I am going to do a tremendous service to Russia, whose economy is declining, and to President Putin. Make a deal now and stop this senseless war! It will only get worse,” stated the Republican.
As Trump noted, if an agreement is not reached soon, he will have “no other choice” but to impose high taxes, tariffs, and sanctions on everything that Russia sells to the U.S. and other countries.
“Let’s end this war that would have never started if I were president! We can do it the easy way or the hard way — and the easy way is always better. It’s time to make a deal. No more lives should be lost!” declared the U.S. president.
At the same time, he emphasized that he would not want to “harm Russia.” “I love the Russian people and have always had very good relations with President Putin — and this is despite the mystification of ‘Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia’,” Trump stated.
In particular, he mentioned that Russia helped the U.S. win World War II, losing “almost 60,000,000 lives.” Although at that time, Russian territories were part of the USSR, which encompassed several republics.
However, regarding losses in Russia, different figures are cited. In 2017, they reported over 41 million losses, allegedly for the entire USSR, based on declassified data from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Before that, they had spoken for years about 27 million casualties.
The Ukrainian government estimates the number of Soviet losses in World War II to be around 26.6 million people.
Recall that the day before, the new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the Donald Trump administration aims not just for the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war but also to ensure it does not happen again in 2-4 years.
Even before taking office, he claimed it was unrealistic to believe that Ukraine could drive Russian troops out of its territory. Therefore, Kyiv, he suggested, would have to make concessions, just as Moscow would.
Earlier, the special envoy of the elected U.S. president for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, stated that he aims to find a solution to the war within 100 days after Trump’s inauguration. He assured that Trump “is not trying to give anything to Putin or the Russians,” but seeks to “preserve Ukraine and its sovereignty.”
Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that during any possible negotiations with Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin will insist that Ukraine become a neutral state and that the occupied territories remain with Russia.