US President Donald Trump issued a fresh ultimatum for Russia on Monday — threatening to impose 100% tariffs if a deal was not reached in the ongoing Ukraine war within 50 days. The Kremlin later dubbed the comments ‘very serious’ and broached the possibility of a response from Vladimir Putin. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev however insisted that the “theatrical ultimatum” had left Russia wholly unbothered.
“The US president’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington. And if and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will definitely comment,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” former president Dmitry Medvedev jibed via X.
What did Trump say?
“We are very, very unhappy with [Russia] and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, about 100%, you call them secondary tariffs, you know what that means. I use trade for a lot of things…But it’s great for settling wars,” Trump remarked during a meeting with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte.
He did not provide specifics on how the tariffs would be implemented. A later clarification from the White House suggested that Trump planned to impose 100% tariffs on Russia as well as secondary sanctions for other countries that purchased oil from Moscow if a deal was not struck within 50 days. Trump also reiterated his “disappointment” with Vladimir Putin during the call — noting that he had expected to have a deal “two months ago”.
“I speak to Putin a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up and say, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call’, and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city. And after that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn’t mean anything. Very lovely conversations. And then the missiles go off that night. I go home, I tell the first lady, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. And she said, Oh really, another city was just hit,” Trump lamented on Monday.