 "US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. File Photo/Reuters")
US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine will end on Friday. But he is busy waging tariff wars on India and other countries than broker peace in Ukraine.
Trump on Wednesday raised tariffs on India by slapping 25 per cent additional tariffs for the purchase of Russian oil on top of 25 per cent tariff originally imposed on July 31 — taking the overall tariffs to 50 per cent. His stated objective for the additional penalty was to stop funds to the Russian war machine. But he has not taken any punitive decision on China, which buys more Russian oil than India.
With such a piecemeal approach, hopes are not high that Trump will impose any real costs on Putin and compel him to end the war in Ukraine. There are already signs that he is about to endorse the Russian leader’s position in the war — as he has done for the past six months .
Contradicting the previous stance that the proposed meeting between with Putin regarding the war in Ukraine will not take place without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence, Trump changed course on Thursday and said he was open to meeting Putin directly as well.
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A Putin-Trump meeting without Zelenskyy will be a victory for Russia. Putin does not want to sit across the table from Zelenskyy as that would legitimise him as the head of state that he cannot afford — he rejects Ukraine as a nation and Zelenskyy as its leader.
Impact Shorts
View AllWill Putin impose sanctions and tariffs on Russia?
For months, Ukraine’s supporters —including some in Trump’s Republican Party— have urged the US president to impose sanctions and tariffs on Russia for the failure to make peace. If no ceasefire is announced today, such calls are set to increase. But Trump is unlikely to budge.
So far, Trump has not indicated he is interested in sanctions or tariffs on Russia.
In the name of Russia, Trump has sought to punish India. But he has not punished other parties that buy Russian oil and gas, such as China, Turkey, and the European Union (EU), who buy more Russian energy than India .
Their purchases of Russian energy are so high that EU members last year paid Russia more for energy imports than they gave to Ukraine in aid.
As Putin refuses to slap sanctions or tariffs on Putin and does not impose any real costs, it remains to be seen if the passing of Friday deadline would mean anything. It would not be the first time, however, that Putin would have defied Trump. In fact, Putin has defied Trump at every step: Putin has rejected all three Trump-endorsed ceasefire proposals, he has rejected Trump’s public pleas to not attack civilians, and he has rejected a comprehensive peace proposal that included most of the Russian demands.
There have also been reports that Putin could agree to a piecemeal ceasefire that would get him Trump’s goodwill but change little on the ground. Analysts have said that Trump has, in fact, been looking forward to a short-term break in the war to replenish his forces.
“For Putin, the ideal scenario is to freeze the conflict for a while, build up strength, and then resume the war — ideally with a more plausible pretext, such as accusing Ukraine of failing to comply with peace agreements,” Kseniya Kirillova, a Russia analyst at Jamestown Foundation, previously told Firstpost .