WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the decision to strengthen sanctions on Russia over its refusal of a ceasefire is “going to be my determination – that’s going to be nobody else’s determination.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office while announcing plans for the “Golden Dome,” a national ballistic and cruise missile defense system, Trump responded to a question on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest comments on sanctions following a call between the pair a day before.
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“We’ll see how Russia behaves. We see what’s going to happen,” Trump added.
He then continued: “You know, we have a pretty critical time right now. I had a talk yesterday for two and a half hours with President Putin… I also spoke to all of the European – to many of them – leaders, but they were representing the whole [of Europe]. And I think we had a very good conversations [sic] yesterday.”
Zelensky said on Monday that he had urged Trump before his two-hour call to Putin to strengthen sanctions on Moscow if the Russian leader did not agree to a ceasefire.
“Banking and energy sanctions from America will greatly determine whether Putin and the Russian [military] will continue to profit from this war or not,” Zelensky was quoted as saying.
Trump’s Tuesday comments came just after his top diplomat, Marco Rubio, told Senators that the US President thinks Russia will likely walk away from Ukraine peace talks if he threatens more sanctions:
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“If you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. “And there’s value in us being able to talk to them and drive them to get to the table.”
Trump has previously threatened to sanction Russia, but that’s never come to any fruition.
During his Oval Office conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Trump also dismissed concerns about Russian military buildup along Finland and Norway’s borders. “No, I don’t worry about that at all,” he said. “They’re going to be very safe. Those two countries are going to be very safe,” he concluded.
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