President Trump on Friday said he was weighing additional sanctions and tariffs on Russia in a push to bring Moscow to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump posted Friday on Truth Social.
“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” he added.
Trump’s threat of sanctions against Russia comes days before members of his administration are set to meet with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia to discuss a path toward ending the war. The same administration officials had met with their Russian counterparts in Riyadh last month.
The president has spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin about the conflict, though he has been much more critical of Zelensky, and the United States suspended military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv in recent days.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing troops on the border and demanding a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. The invasion took place nearly a decade after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The Biden administration imposed numerous sanctions on Moscow in the years since the war started, including hitting Russia’s energy sector, its defense sector and various other aspects of the Russian economy to try and cripple its funding for the war effort.
