US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose stiff taxes, tariffs and sanctions on Russia if an agreement is not reached to end the war in Ukraine.
The US already prohibits the import of virtually all Russian products, and Russia has faced a multitude of US and European sanctions since the invasion began almost three years ago.
In a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday, Mr Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping via video conference in Moscow (Gavriil Grigorov/AP)
He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in the Second World War — and has a good relationship with Mr Putin, but warned of the penalties if the war is not stopped soon.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” he said.
Mr Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other material to defend itself.
He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.
The problem with the threat is that other than a small amount of fertiliser, animal feed, inorganic material like tin, and machinery, Russia currently exports very little to the US that could be subject to tariffs.
Oil had been Russia’s largest export to the US, but such trade was zeroed out in 2023.
The US imported a total of 2.8 billion dollars worth of these products from Russia in 2024, a tiny fraction of US imports and a precipitous drop from 2023, when it was 4.5 billion dollars, and 2022, when it was 14.4 billion dollars, according to US government statistics.
And, Russia is already one of the world’s most heavily sanctioned nations.
Many of those sanctions relate to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and were imposed under President Joe Biden, but others predate Mr Biden.
Some were imposed during Mr Trump’s first term in office, and some date back to Russia’s 2014 seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
In addition, “other participating countries” such as Iran and North Korea, the two most often accused of helping Russia in the Ukraine war, are subject to even more US sanctions.