Deborah Akinyosoye
United States President Donald Trump has set a new deadline of 10 or 12 days for Russia to end its war in Ukraine, underscoring his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin for prolonging the conflict.
Speaking in Scotland, where he is holding meetings with European leaders and playing golf, Trump on Monday said he was disappointed in Putin and shortened a 50-day deadline he had set this month.
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about … 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “There’s no reason in waiting. … We just don’t see any progress being made.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed Trump’s “clear stance and expressed determination” over his remarks targeting Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
“Right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace. I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war,” Zelenskyy said.
Meanwhile, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a post on X that Trump was playing “the ultimatum game” with Russia, and that such an approach could lead to a war involving the US.
Medvedev wrote: “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country.”
The US president has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for continuing attacks on Ukraine despite US efforts to end the war and has threatened both sanctions on Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made.
Before returning for a second term in the White House in January, Trump, who views himself as a peacemaker, had promised to end the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict within 24 hours.
“There’s no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.”
But the US president, who has also expressed annoyance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has not always followed up on his tough talk about Putin with action, citing what he deems a good relationship that the two men have had previously.
“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” Trump said. “And I say that’s not the way to do it.”