U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday that Russia would face severe consequences of a financial nature from the United States if it refused to cooperate on a cease-fire with Ukraine. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
License PhotoMarch 13 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump warned Russia of “devastating” economic consequences if it did not sign a cease-fire deal his administration has agreed to with Ukraine but stressed he hoped it wouldn’t be necessary to exert that type of pressure.
“There are things that you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant, in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday as he met with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin.
“In a financial sense, yeah we could do things very bad for Russia, it would be devastating for Russia.”
Trump reiterated his preference for persuasion over coercion on the 30-day cease-fire negotiated with Ukraine by U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, saying he and his team were “getting close to maybe getting something done.”
“We had a great success yesterday. We have a full cease-fire when, if, it kicks in, but it’s up to Russia now,” he added.
While Ukraine has agreed to the truce, which would suspend conflict with the frontlines as they stand, the reaction from Moscow has been cool, claiming it was being left out of the loop.
“Nobody is talking to us. They keep saying, ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,’ but they do everything about Russia without Russia,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.
However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Waltz had spoken on the phone with his Russian counterpart Wednesday and that Trump’s Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, was headed to Moscow.
“We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war. We are at the 10th-yard line and the president expects the Russians to help us run this into the end zone.”
Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported in the last few minutes that Witkoff’s plane had arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport from Doha, touching down at around 11:40 a.m. local time.
After the U.S.-Ukraine talks in Jeddah concluded, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration’s next step would be to “bring the deal to [Russia] directly.”
“If their response is yes, then we know we’ve made real progress and there’s a real chance at peace. If their response is no, it would be highly unfortunate and it would make their intentions clear,” said Rubio.
