TURNBERRY, Scotland. U.S. President Donald Trump has issued a new ultimatum to Russia, giving it 10 to 12 days to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine or face consequences, including sanctions and tariffs.
Speaking from Scotland during meetings with European leaders and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin and shortened a previous 50-day deadline he had announced earlier this month.
“I’m going to make a new deadline of about… 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump said. “There’s no reason in waiting… We just don’t see any progress being made.”
Trump warned that failure to meet the new timeline would prompt sanctions, possibly including secondary tariffs. “If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait?” he added. “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.”
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin. However, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Trump’s ultimatum risked escalating the conflict. “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump’s) own country,” Medvedev wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed Trump’s statement, calling it a “particularly significant” and timely move toward peace. In his nightly address, Zelenskiy stressed that stronger sanctions remain a “key element” in ending the conflict. “Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses,” he said.
Trump has long touted his previous “good relationship” with Putin, but indicated Monday that he is no longer interested in further talks. The former president also expressed disappointment with Putin’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine.
“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” Trump said. “And I say that’s not the way to do it.”
Trump, who previously campaigned on a promise to end the war in Ukraine in a single day, is also facing challenges in securing peace in other regions, including Gaza. Nonetheless, he continues to cite his role in helping de-escalate tensions between other nations such as India and Pakistan and Rwanda and Congo.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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