US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would reduce the 50-day deadline he gave to Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a truce with Ukraine. He also added that a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today will be set.
While welcoming UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for a meeting at his luxury golf course in Scotland, Trump said, “I am disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him.” He also talked about reducing the 50-day deadline, saying, “ We’re going to have to look, and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.”
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters. Talking about the announcement of this deadline, Trump said that he will probably announce it tonight or tomorrow. “But there’s no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is,” he said, further expressing frustration with Putin for ignoring previous calls for a ceasefire.
On July 14, Trump issued a 50-day deadline, which would have fallen on September 2, threatening to impose stiff economic penalties on Russia if it did not end hostilities with Ukraine.
Warning about severe tariffs, Trump has said, “…if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent.”
The US president threatened that these would be secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners. He also expressed at the time that he was very unhappy about the situation.
Even after the warning, Russia stepped up its air attacks on Ukraine with a record number of attacks in the recent week, including an assault by 728 drones on July 9 that damaged residential buildings and infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.
Monday morning, Ukraine faced another Russian drone and missile attack with air raid alerts sounding across the country for six hours.
Earlier in July, before the 50-day warning, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Trump that Moscow would not “give up” on its aims in Ukraine but remained open to continuing negotiations.
A phone call happened between Trump and Putin, in which the Russian counterpart said that Russia will achieve its aims.
Trump, on many occasions, has said that he is disappointed by the Russian president. In a recent interview with the BBC, he said that he is disappointed but not done with the Russian counterpart.
Source: Hindustan Times