Russia has attempted to shrug off Donald Trump’s threat to impose new and “very severe” tariffs if Vladimir Putin fails to agree to peace with Ukraine. 

The Kremlin reacted icily to the US president warning on Monday that Moscow had 50 days to agree to a ceasefire, calling it a “theatrical ultimatum”. 

Mr Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, also announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened “biting” secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports.

The US president doubled down in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, saying he was “very disappointed” with Mr Putin and frustrated that “talk” had not led to an end to the three-year conflict. 

“The US president’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

“We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington.”

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Mr Peskov went on to claim that decisions being made in Washington and other NATO capitals were “perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace but as a signal to continue the war”. 

Two other senior Russian officials did not hold back.

Former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Mr Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum”, while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless.

 Mr Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a “peacemaker” president, said he wanted to see the end of the war — on which he said the United States had spent $US350 billion ($532 billion).

Mr Putin, who has spoken to Mr Trump by telephone at least six times this year, has yet to comment publicly on Mr Trump’s remarks.

Trump ‘disappointed’ with Putin

During the interview with the BBC, Mr Trump specifically expressed frustration that Mr Putin’s “talk” about peace was often followed by Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,”  Mr Trump said of Mr Putin, a reference to former US President Joe Biden calling the Russian leader “a killer” in a 2021 interview.

The Financial Times reported that Mr Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether he could hit Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons.

“I am disappointed but I am not done with him,” Mr Trump in an interview with the BBC, said in regards to Mr Putin and the peace deal with Ukraine he thought was on the cards.

“I thought we had a deal four times and then you go home and see he’s just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv.”

When asked by the BBC if he trusted the Russian president, Mr Trump responded saying: “I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you.”

Vladimir Putin has not responded to Donald Trump’s comments. (AP: Sergei Bobylev)

Mr Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. 

The US says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war.

Secondary sanctions

Mr Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace — but on his terms — and that there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down.

A very Trumpian deal means Russia now faces a more formidable enemy

Donald Trump the commander-in-chief has decided that Russia is about to face a much more heavily armed Ukraine, while Donald Trump the businessman has decided that NATO — Europe and Canada — should pick up the bill.

In Washington, a White House official said Mr Trump’s intention was to impose “100 per cent tariffs on Russia” and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal was not struck in 50 days.

“We can do secondary,”  Mr Trump said. “We’re probably talking about 100 per cent or something like that. We can do secondary tariffs without the Senate, without the House, but what they’re crafting also could be very good.”

Eighty-five of the 100 US senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would give Mr Trump the authority to impose 500 per cent tariffs on any country that helps Russia.

China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world’s second largest exporter of oil.

Reuters

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