Washington: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs as a form of “sanctions” to exert additional pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
India made “huge” profits on the sale of Russian oil after the war in Ukraine, and Trump said that his sanctions on New Delhi may have played a role in Russian President Vladimir Putin agreeing to meet him
Trump doubled India’s tariff burden to 50 per cent by adding a new 25 per cent levy on top of the previously announced 25 per cent. Leavitt told reporters the move was part of Washington’s strategy to apply “secondary pressure” on Moscow.
“Look, the president has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. He’s taken actions as you’ve seen, sanctions on India and other measures as well. He’s made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end, and he has scoffed at suggestions that we should wait another month before any meeting takes place,” Leavitt said.
She also said that plans are underway for a bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, noting that while the Kremlin has so far avoided firm commitments, it has not ruled out future talks.
Earlier in the day, Trump reiterated that the US would not deploy ground forces to Ukraine but left open the possibility of other forms of American support. “The president understands security guarantees are crucially important to ensure a lasting peace, and he has directed his national security team to coordinate with our friends in Europe and to continue discussions with both Ukraine and Russia,” Leavitt added.
Trump also met Zelensky at the White House on Tuesday, signaling openness to a potential trilateral meeting with Putin. Describing the talks as “very successful,” Trump said progress had been made toward a possible negotiation. Zelensky, meanwhile, called it the “best conversation” he has had so far with the US President.
US envoy Steve Witkoff shared new details today about the high-stakes meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, saying that Russian officials made concessions “almost immediately.”
“There were concessions almost immediately made on the part of the Russians in the first meeting in Alaska,” Witkoff told Fox News. “Part of getting those concessions was learning whether we were going to be able to see the Russians prepared to be more accommodating.”
“We stayed there for quite some time because we actually made progress on how we might get to a peace deal,” Witkoff said. “The president began to sense in this meeting in Alaska that we had a lot of the precursors agreed to for a peace deal, so why not pursue an entire peace deal?”
