Donald Trump has declared Russia an “extraordinary threat” to the United States after his top negotiator Steve Witkoff met with Vladimir Putin for crunch talks in Moscow.
The US President on Wednesday issued an executive order hitting India with an additional 25 per cent tariff over its purchases of Russian oil, which Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s office argued was "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable".
He is also said to have told European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, that he intended to meet the Russian president face to face soon as early as next week, which would mark the first summit between the two leaders since 2018.
It came after Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s foreign policy aide and a former ambassador to Washington, revealed that talks between Mr Putin the US president’s Middle Eastern envoy in Moscow were “useful and constructive”.
He said Russia “received some signals from Trump” and “sent some signals” in response, but did not elaborate on what these were.
The discussion lasted around three hours, according to Russian state media agency TASS, in which the pair discussed the prospects for the development of the “strategic partnership” between the two powers.
But shortly after the meeting, the White House said in a statement: "The Russian Federation's actions in Ukraine pose an ongoing threat to US national security and foreign policy, necessitating stronger measures to address the national emergency".
His actions comes two days before the US president’s deadline for his Russian counterpart to end the “horrible war” in Ukraine.
He also threatened the country with harsh economic sanctions, as well as tariffs on nations buying Russian oil and gas — the country’s biggest export.
Mr Trump has grown impatient with Mr Putin’s resistance to his peace efforts three-and-a-half years after launching his illegal invasion of Ukraine.
Before being sworn into the White House for a second term in January, Mr Trump claimed that he would end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in a day.
"We thought we had (the war) 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," Mr Trump said last month.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected requests for a meeting between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Putin.
On Tuesday, the US approved $200 million (£150 million) of additional military sales to Ukraine following a phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky.
Prior to Mr Putin and Mr Winkoff’s meeting on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky warned that Russia will “run out of money for the war” before agreeing a ceasefire.
