Trump cuts deadline to 10 or 12 days for Russia to reach peace deal with Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump set a new deadline on Monday of 10 or 12 days for Russia to make progress toward ending the Ukraine crisis or face consequences.

Trump has threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. The fresh deadline suggests the U.S. president is prepared to move forward on those threats after previous hesitation to do so.

Speaking at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland, where he met with European leaders, Trump said he was disappointed in Putin and shortening a 50-day deadline he had set on the issue earlier this month.

"I'm going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today," Trump said in response to a question while sitting with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer. There's no reason in waiting. There's no reason in waiting. It's 50 days. I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made."

Trump has repeatedly voiced exasperation with Putin for pursuing attacks on Ukraine despite U.S. efforts to end the conflict.

"We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever," Trump said. "And I say that's not the way to do it."

Trump also indicated that he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump's demands. 

"There's no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs," Trump said.

There was no immediate comment from the Kremlin.

In a post on X, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Trump was playing "a game of ultimatums" that could lead to a war involving the United States. 

Medvedev wrote: "Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with (Trump's) own country."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Trump's "particularly significant" statement as timely in trying to move forward to a peace settlement. "I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war," Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine, he said later in his nightly video address, favored tougher sanctions as a "key element" in ending the conflict. "Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses," he said.

Russian and Ukrainian diplomats met in Istanbul last week. Ukraine proposed a summit by the end of August between Zelenskyy and Putin, but the Kremlin has said that timeline was unlikely and that a meeting could only happen as a final step to clinch peace. The meeting was the third negotiation in Istanbul. Putin has not attended any of the talks, despite Trump's exhortations.

Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that if the West wanted real peace with Ukraine, it would stop supplying Kyiv with weapons.

(With input from Reuters)