US President Donald Trump has expressed growing frustration with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as the war in Ukraine drags on, saying he is considering imposing new sanctions on Moscow.
In comments made at the White House on July 8, five days after his latest phone call with Putin, Trump indicated he was making little progress in his goal of ending the more than 40-month war.
“We get a lot of bullshit from Putin. It's very nice most of the time but meaningless,” Trump said in perhaps his most critical comments of the Kremlin leader since launching peace talks efforts in February.
Trump’s comments come a day after he said he would release some weapons designated for Ukraine following blowback from lawmakers in Congress, including members of his own party, about a halt in military aid.
“We are sending defensive weapons to Ukraine because Putin is not treating human beings right,” Trump said. "We will step up our weapons contractors to work way faster. They are very good but they are slow. We need them faster, unfortunately."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24, 2022, is the biggest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Russian casualties are expected to top 1 million this summer while Ukraine has lost around 400,000, according to a report last month by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Since taking office in January, Trump has made ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine his top foreign policy priority, holding six phone calls with Putin and dispatching his special envoy to Moscow three times.
Putin responded to Trump’s request for a 30-day cease-fire by stepping up aerial bombardments of Ukraine. Those attacks have killed hundreds of civilians, including many children, outraging American and Europeans alike and increasing pressure on Trump to take tougher action against Russia to get Putin to the negotiating table.
During the July 3 phone call, the leaders’ sixth this year, Putin rejected Trump’s request for a cease-fire, telling the US president that “Russia will achieve its goals” in Ukraine and “will not abandon” them, according to Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov.
Trump later said he was “disappointed” with the call. Trump had described his previous calls with Putin about Ukraine as "good."
Trump's sharper criticism of Putin is notable because he has a history of making positive and flattering comments about the Russian leader. Trump has called him “smart" and last year said he had a “very good relationship” with Putin. Trump had hinted that he would be able to leverage that relationship to secure a cease-fire.
However, two months into his effort to end the war, amid increased Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities and civilian deaths, Trump began to question Putin’s commitment to peace. The US president said in late April that Putin may be “tapping” him along, or playing him.
Ukrainian and Western experts have long said that Putin is not interested in peace and is only engaging in talks to maintain his friendly relationship with Trump. They say Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine, which he claims is historical Russian land. Russia currently controls about 20 percent of Ukraine.
The Kremlin didn’t immediately respond to Trump’s July 8 comments. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is trying to reestablish his political influence through hawkish posturing, took a swipe at Trump’s flip-flop on Putin and Ukrainian aid on social media.
“The American (Trump) is back on his favorite political swings: love talking to Putin, disappointed after talking with Putin; not giving weapons to Ukraine, we are giving weapons to Ukraine. How should we react? Ignore. Just keep on fighting, reclaiming our land (Ukraine), work for victory," Medvedev said in a July 8 post on Telegram.
US lawmakers have been urging Trump to send more weapons to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, saying only tough measures will get the Kremlin to end its war.
Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) has introduced a bill that would give the president the power to impose additional sanctions on Russia and new, punishing tariffs on countries that support Russia’s war effort.
The bill has more than 80 co-sponsors, an indication of the widespread support in the Senate for Ukraine. A similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
Trump has so far resisted hitting Russia with new sanctions, fearing it would undermine peace talks. Now, with peace talks going nowhere, Trump said he is studying the option.
“We are looking into Lindsey Graham's sanctions against Russia,” he said.