'Settle now, stop this ridiculous war': Trump's stern message to Putin over Ukraine deal

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to make a deal to stop the “ridiculous” Ukraine war now or face tariffs and sanctions.

Trump said he was “not looking to hurt Russia” and had “always had a very good relationship with President Putin,” a leader for whom he has expressed admiration in the past.

“I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin - and this despite the Radical Left’s Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX. We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process. All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“If we don’t make a “deal,” and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way - and the easy way is always better. It’s time to “MAKE A DEAL.” NO MORE LIVES SHOULD BE LOST!!!” he added.

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Trump was taking a harder line than he had during a White House press conference on Tuesday, when he said it “sounds likely” that he would apply additional sanctions if Putin did not come to the table.

The US president also declined to say whether he would continue his predecessor Joe Biden’s policy of sending weapons to Ukraine to fight off Russia’s invasion, launched in February 2022.

“We’re looking at that,” he said at the press conference. “We’re talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky, we’re going to be talking to President Putin very soon.”

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Before his inauguration on Monday, Trump pledged to end the Ukraine war immediately upon assuming office, raising hopes that he would use aid as leverage to compel Kyiv to make concessions to Russia, which invaded in February 2022.

In unusually critical remarks of Putin, Trump said on Monday that the Russian president “should make a deal.”

“Zelenskyy told me he wants to make a deal, I don’t know if Putin does … He might not. I think he should make a deal. I think he’s destroying Russia by not making a deal,” Politico quoted Trump as saying in the Oval Office on the first day of his second presidency.

“I think, Russia is kinda in big trouble. You take a look at their economy, you take a look at their inflation in Russia. I got along with [Putin] great, I would hope he wants to make a deal,” he added.

Trump said that Putin must be dissatisfied with the slow progress of his war against Ukraine, nearly three years after he ordered an all-out assault, and 11 years after disguised Russian troops first entered Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.

“He’s grinding it out. Most people thought it would last about one week and now you’re into three years. It is not making him look good,” Politico quoted Trump as saying.

“We have numbers that almost a million Russian soldiers have been killed. About 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers are killed. Russia’s bigger, they have more soldiers to lose but that’s no way to run a country,” he added.

With inputs from agencies