Two leading Russian figures have warned that President Donald Trump’s ultimatums to get Russia to adopt a quick ‘peace’ with Ukraine, could have the opposite effect—namely dragging the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia.
In early July Trump announced that he would apply “very severe tariffs” of potentially 100% if Russia did not agree to a peace deal within 50 days. On July 28, Trump announced, “I’m going to make a new deadline of about 10 or 12 days from today—there’s no reason in waiting.” He added that there would be tariffs and possibly sanctions.
That same day, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev responded on his X account:
“Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10… He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”
On July 22, Russian Senator Alexey Pushkov issued a warning to the U.S. President of a similar nature. According to RIA Novosti, Pushkov said that President Donald Trump risks falling into a Ukrainian trap if he starts supplying new weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Pushkov said that he is sure that Trump already has one foot in the trap, so that if he takes another step, the trap will slam shut, and Trump will not be able to get out of the Ukrainian crisis. He added that the same thing happened to the U.S. in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
The week of July 21, the Trump administration announced weapons sales to Ukraine totalling $652 million, under the Foreign Military Sales program, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated July 29, “We have taken note of the statement that President Trump made yesterday,” adding that he “would like to avoid commenting on” the U.S. leader’s remark, TASS quoted him as saying.
