U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday condemned Russia’s ongoing attacks against Ukraine as “disgusting” and threatened new sanctions if Moscow does not agree to peace by the end of next week.
“Russia? I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” Trump told reporters when asked to comment on a Russian missile strike earlier in the day that killed 31 people and wounded dozens more in Kyiv.
“It should be stopped. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said, adding that he plans to impose fresh sanctions on Russia if President Vladimir Putin does not end the war on Ukraine by Aug. 8. “We’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him.”
The U.S. president also said that he will send his special envoy Steve Witkoff to Russia in the coming days. Witkoff has already met with Putin multiple times in Russia, though Trump’s efforts to improve ties with the Kremlin have so far stalled.
On Monday, Trump accused Putin of holding “nice and respectful conversations” while continuing to “launch rockets” at Ukrainian cities. He said he would shorten his previous 50-day deadline for ending the war to just 10 days, warning of new sanctions and possible secondary tariffs.
The Kremlin later brushed off those threats, telling reporters that “we’ve lived under heavy sanctions for quite some time now.”
Trump’s recent comments mark a significant shift in tone from earlier this year, when he repeatedly expressed confidence in Putin’s willingness to negotiate peace and clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
But after months of sluggish peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which have yielded only routine prisoner exchanges, frustration is mounting within the Trump administration.
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