DONALD Trump has slashed the 50-day deadline for Vladimir Putin to cut a peace deal down to just the end of next week.
Trump has slammed the tyrant – who has not taken Trump’s peace efforts seriously – saying he was “very disappointed” with him during a press conference with Sir Keir Starmer in Scotland today.
Trump said Putin’s new deadline had been reduced down to “10 to 12” days from today, which would be August 6 to 8.
The President is clearly fed up with Vlad’s unwillingness to cut a peace deal and his nightly blitzes that target and kill civilians.
He said: “I’m disappointed in President Putin, very disappointed in him.
“So we’re going to have to look and I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number.”
He later clarified saying: “I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today. There’s no reason in waiting, we just don’t see any progress being made.”
Trump said that the US would do secondary sanctions on Russia – slapping sanctions on those who buy oil from Moscow.
But that could all be avoided if Putin cuts a peace deal – which Trump thinks could still happen.
The new deadline will be announced tonight or tomorrow, with Trump saying “there’s no reason to wait”.
He said: “It [peace] should happen fast, so many people are dying.”
Trump also said he is not so interested in speaking to Putin anymore – due to the tyrant consistently bombing Ukraine after peace talks.
The deadline was set to end on September 5, but is now set to end a month earlier.
The Moscow stock market quickly dropped 1.2 per cent at the prospect of massive US sanctions on the economy.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has said that the “language of ultimatums, blackmail, and threats” is unacceptable to Moscow and that it views the threat of new sanctions as mundane.
A fortnight ago, Trump vowed to slap brutal 100 percent tariffs on Russia if Moscow did not reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.
He also agreed to send US weapons – compromising of “everything” in their arsenal – to Nato so they can distribute them to Kyiv.
The meeting with Mark Rutte marked a shift in US policy more towards backing Ukraine after Vlad did not take peace seriously.
Trump has made getting peace in Ukraine a priority and has talked to Putin directly as he has tried to get him to cut a deal.
But the tyrant has not moved away from his maximalist demands and will only sign a deal that leaves Ukraine defenceless.
Vlad has spent months talking up the prospect of peace, but appears to have alienated Trump after launching huge barrages at Ukrainian civilians.
The Kremlin responded to the deadline at the time saying: “We of course want to understand what is behind this statement – 50 days.
“It used to be 24 hours, it used to be 100 days, we have been through all of this and we really want to understand what motivates the President of the United States.”
Trump’s deadline slashing comes after Putin launched his latest blitz on Ukraine with Poland scrambling jets in response.
Eight people, including a two-year-old girl, were injured in the strikes with shrapnel wounds after one bomb hit an apartment building in the capital.
Volodymyr Zelenksy addressed the latest blitz saying “our sky defenders intercepted several hundred Russian attack drones”.
One person is fighting for their life in a critical condition, while three others were hospitalised.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/14838839/donald-trump-putin-peace-deadline/