(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump moved up the deadline for Russia to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, saying the Kremlin has 10 days to formulate a plan or hefty sanctions will be imposed.
The White House previously gave Russia 50 days to broker a deal before it would be penalized. Trump bumped this timeline up Tuesday when he announced that sanctions will begin in 10 days if Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot come to a ceasefire agreement before then.
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him,” Trump said this week during a trip to Scotland.
After months of negotiations to bring an end to the deadly conflict in Ukraine, relations between Washington and Moscow turned sour earlier this month. The U.S. switched gears from a diplomatic approach to threatening economic penalties after Trump voiced sharp criticism of Putin during a cabinet meeting in July.
“We get a lot of bulls*** thrown at us by Putin if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Trump expressed frustration over the disconnect between Putin’s vows to work out a peace deal and Russia’s continued aggression toward Ukraine.
“I’m not so interested in talking anymore,” Trump said this week. “We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night.”
Trump’s previous 50-day deadline applied to secondary tariffs against Russia, meaning the U.S. would penalize countries who import goods from Moscow with the goal of isolating and diminishing Russia’s economic power globally.
After Trump signaled this week that he plans to shorten the timeframe for a ceasefire deal to be made, a spokesperson for the Kremlin said Putin “took note” of Trump’s warnings but did not elaborate further.
When announcing the new Aug. 8 deadline, Trump did not express optimism that the revised window of time would be effective in pushing Putin to a peace deal.
“I don’t know if it’s going to affect Russia because he wants to obviously … keep the war going,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
The U.S. doesn’t do much business with Russia. U.S. total goods trade with Russia was an estimated $3.5 billion in 2024, according to the U.S. Trade Representatives Office. By comparison, U.S. goods trade with Vietnam totaled an estimated $149.6 billion in 2024.
