President Donald Trump issued a threat to impose “high levels” of sanctions on Russia and tariffs on imports from the country if it did not settle to end its nearly three-year-old war against Ukraine. The warning was made on his third day as president on Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump directly addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that if a deal was not made, he would have no choice but to impose “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”
Trump emphasized that he loves the Russian people and has always had a good relationship with Putin, but threatened to take action to stop the war. He claimed that he could end the war in 24 hours if he was elected to a second term, but this did not happen after his inauguration.
Trump also highlighted Russia’s role in World War II, stating that the country lost “almost 60,000,000 lives in the process.” However, this number is significantly higher than expert estimates, which put the total number of military and civilian losses in the Soviet Union during the war at 24 million.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy provided an update on the war, stating that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action, 370,000 have been wounded, and an estimated 198,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, with over 550,000 wounded.
