Trump says he could sanction Russia over Ukraine
US President Donald Trump says he will likely impose sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin, refuses to negotiate about ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump gave no details on possible additional sanctions. The United States has already sanctioned Russia heavily for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Trump said his administration was also looking at the issue of sending weapons to Ukraine, adding his view that the European Union should be doing more to support Ukraine.
“We’re talking to (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy, we’re going to be talking with President Putin very soon,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’re going to look at it.”
Trump said he had pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping in a call to intervene to stop the Ukraine war.
“He’s not done very much on that. He’s got a lot of … power, like we have a lot of power. I said, ‘You ought to get it settled.’ We did discuss it.”
Earlier on Tuesday Zelenskiy said that at least 200,000 European peacekeepers would be needed to prevent a new Russian attack after any ceasefire deal.
The Ukrainian leader, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland a day after Trump returned to power following months of promises to end the war in Ukraine quickly, also urged European leaders to do more to defend the continent.
The prospect of a rapid settlement has focused minds in Kyiv and Europe on the urgent need for security guarantees to prevent any future Russian attack, with the idea of peacekeeping force circulating.
“From all the Europeans? 200,000, it’s a minimum. It’s a minimum, otherwise it’s nothing,” Zelenskiy said when asked about the idea of a peacekeeping contingent on an interview panel after delivering his speech.
That number is around the size of the entire French armed forces, estimated at just over 200,000 by France’s defence ministry in 2020.
Zelenskiy said at least that number would be needed as a security guarantee if Russia’s armed forces totalled 1.5 million personnel and Ukraine had only half that number.
Zelenskiy said such a force would only be part of the security guarantees that Ukraine needed.
The Ukrainian leader said Kyiv was working to set up a meeting between himself and Trump.
“The teams have been working on a meeting, they are currently in the process,” Zelenskiy said.
Trump has said he would stop the war in Ukraine swiftly, without saying how.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not agree to Russian demands that it drastically reduce the size of its military, predicting that Putin would demand Ukraine cut its armed forces to a fifth of their size.
“This is what he wants. We will not allow this to happen,” Zelenskiy said.
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