Russia rejected President’s Donald Trump’s “ultimatum” on Tuesday calling his demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days or the U.S. will impose secondary sanctions “quite serious.”
During a White House meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday, Trump said, “We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100%, you’d call them secondary tariffs.” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov responded firmly on Tuesday saying that “any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us,” according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
“We need to focus on political and diplomatic work. The President of the Russian Federation has repeatedly said that we are ready to negotiate and the diplomatic path is preferable for us,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying. “If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue… This is an unshakable position. We would like Washington and NATO as a whole to take it with the utmost seriousness,” Ryabkov added.
Russia’s response to the president’s ultimatum comes amidst Trump’s pledge to provide NATO allies with new weapons for Ukraine to use in their defense against Russia. Yet the president also dismissed the report that he was planning on providing long-range missiles to Ukraine and warned Kyiv against striking Moscow.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov separately called Mr. Trump’s announcement “quite serious,” adding, “Some of it is addressed personally to (Russian) President Putin. We definitely need time to analyze what was said in Washington,” Peskov said during his daily briefing on Tuesday. “If and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will definitely comment on it. I would not want to get ahead of ourselves, so let’s wait for Putin’s decision on whether he will comment on it himself.”
Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Putin as the Russia leader show no signs of pulling back his offensive into Ukraine. Speaking to reporters on Sunday the president lamented, “He (Putin) talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the morning.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to clarify the president’s stance saying, Trump is “working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war” so any discussion regarding long-range missiles is “not encouraging further killing” but an aimed at de-escalation.
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