WASHINGTON (TND) — In light of Russia’s recent barrage of strikes on Ukraine, which Ukrainian authorities said included more than 900 attack drones over just three days, calls for the United States and European allies to impose additional sanctions on Russia have grown louder. President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday why he hasn’t made the move yet.
“Only the fact that if I think that I’m close to getting a deal, I don’t want to screw it up by doing that. Let me tell you, I’m a lot tougher than the people you’re talking about but you have to know when to use that,” Trump said.
Despite the recent attacks and what’s become a war of words between Trump and those closest to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump was still undecided about whether Putin is serious about negotiating an end to the war.
We’re gonna find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently, but it’ll take about a week and a half, two weeks,” Trump said.
Trump said he’s “not happy about the situation,” referring to Putin launching attacks on Ukraine while Trump’s team is trying to forge a path forward on peace talks.
In a pair of recent social media posts, Trump said Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” and “if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump was being emotional, and former Russian president and current top security official Dmitry Medvedev said, “I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!”
As Reuters was the first to report, Putin will seek a guarantee from NATO to stop expanding eastward and for Western leaders to lift sanctions.
Well that’s what he wanted, one of the things that he wanted in the beginning was to dissolve NATO because then he can continue he rant across Europe taking territory like he did with Crimea before, like he did in Georgia and others,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
For members of Congress, lifting sanctions on Russia is out of the question: There are bills with growing bipartisan support in both the House and Senate to impose hefty new sanctions. Under Republican majorities in both chambers, they remain in limbo without the president’s endorsement.
