US President Donald Trump has warned that Ukraine, along with Russia, could face crippling sanctions if they fail to move towards peace.
Speaking from Washington, Trump stressed on Tuesday that Kiev was not free of blame, accusing both sides of over four years of devastating conflict.
"Zelenskyy is not exactly innocent, either. I get along with him now, but we have a much different relationship because now, we're not paying any money to Ukraine," said Trump, referring to a deal in which NATO members buy US weapons for use by Kiev.
“[...] mostly young people are dying every single week. If I can save that, by doing sanctions or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have,” Trump said.
Trump also accused his predecessor, Joe Biden of allowing Ukraine to become involved in a war with Russia.
"Nobody goes into a war thinking they’re going to lose. They go in – I’m sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. It’s going to be, you know, we’re going to win. You’re going to beat somebody that’s 15 times your size. Biden shouldn’t have let that happen," he added.
The US president repeated his threat to launch an “economic war,” warning that inaction from Moscow could result in devastating new trade restrictions.
"We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war,” the US president said.
Security guarantees
President Trump, for weeks, has pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face for direct negotiations during their separate visits to the US.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has questioned Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, a claim that Trump dismissed as “nonsense” and “posturing” from Russian officials unwilling to compromise.
Separately, the US and European allies are working on developing security guarantees for Ukraine.
Western allies are preparing a three-layer security plan for Ukraine once a ceasefire is reached, the Financial Times reported, citing European and Ukrainian officials.
The measures would include air defence support, intelligence sharing, and the possible deployment of European troops to bolster Ukraine’s post-war defence.
