US President Donald Trump just reminded the world that his patience is wearing thin with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This week, Trump announced that he would reduce the deadline for Russia accepting an end to military operations from fifty days to ten days. “There’s no reason for waiting,” Trump said on Monday.
During his comments Monday alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, Trump also mentioned two actions that he might take after that deadline: additional sanctions on Russia and major tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil or gas. Those are two useful steps, but the question that the White House should be asking is what steps might eventually force Putin to accept the compromise peace that Trump has advocated since before taking office.
Since the Russian president launched his revisionist campaign with the 2008 attack on Georgia, and then his seizure of Crimea in 2014, he has managed to outlast the opposition that he has faced from the West. Trump has the ability to change this. To do so, he must abandon the dawdling, incremental policy of the Biden administration, and he must take strong military and economic measures that will prevent additional Russian gains on the battlefield and further reduce the output of an already doddering Russian economy. What might this look like?
Voice of Ukraine 