U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on August 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday (August 22, 2025) he would make an “important” decision in two weeks on Ukraine peace efforts — specifying that Moscow could face massive sanctions or he might do nothing.

Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “not happy” about a Russian strike on Thursday (August 21, 2025) that hit a U.S.-owned factory in Ukraine “and I’m not happy about anything having to do with that war.”

But he said he wanted to see whether Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy would meet first.

“I think I’ll know. I think I’ll know the attitude of Russia and, frankly, of Ukraine. It takes two,” Mr. Trump said when asked what he would do at the end of a two-week timeframe he set for assessing the state of peace talks.

“Then I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be a very important decision,” he said.

“That’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both. Or do we do nothing and say it’s your fight?” he added.

Mr. Trump — who showed off a picture of him and Mr. Putin at their recent Alaska summit, which he said had been sent by the Kremlin leader — has repeatedly announced timescales of around two weeks for decisions on Ukraine and other issues. Many of those deadlines have failed to materialise.

Also read: Takeaways from Trump-Putin meeting: No agreement, no questions but lots of pomp

Russia on Friday (August 22, 2025) ruled out an immediate meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy, despite Mr. Trump saying on Monday (August 18, 2025) after meeting with the Ukrainian and European leaders that he was arranging a summit.

Mr. Trump said Friday  (August 22, 2025) that setting up a Zelenskyy-Putin summit was as hard as mixing “oil and vinegar.”

“We’re going to see if Putin and Zelensky will be working together. You know, it’s like oil and vinegar, a little bit. They don’t get along too well, for obvious reasons,” he told reporters.

Mr. Trump added “we’ll see” if he would need to attend any such meeting.

READ MORE

Called out Russian President Putin by name in the social media post on January 22, President Trump argued that he always had a good relationship with the leader, but that it was time to settle “this ridiculous War!” File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin “should make a deal” with Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump has said and asserted that they would meet as soon as they can.

Earlier, he warned his Russian counterpart to end the ‘ridiculous war’ in Ukraine or face high tariffs and further sanctions. Mr. Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, said this on Truth Social on Wednesday (January 22, 2025), a social media platform owned by him.

Also read: Sanctions on Russia likely if Putin doesn’t come to negotiation table: Trump

Talking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday (January 23, 2025), the U.S. President said, “I think he (Putin) should make a deal.” When asked if he thinks that sanctions on Russia will force Mr. Putin to negotiate, he said, “I don’t know.”

“Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think, from what I hear, Putin would like to see me. And we’ll meet as soon as we can. I’d meet immediately. Soldiers are being killed on the battlefield,” he said.

“That battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II… and I have pictures that you don’t want to see. Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven’t seen in decades. It would be nice to end that war. It’s a ridiculous war,” the U.S. President said.

In response to another question, Mr. Trump said Ukraine is ready to make a deal. “He’s (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) ready to negotiate a deal. He’d like to stop. He’s somebody that lost a lot of soldiers. So did Russia. Russia lost more soldiers, they lost 8,00,000 soldiers,” Mr. Trump added.

Called out Russian President Putin by name in the social media post on Wednesday (January 22, 2025), Mr. Trump argued that he always had a good relationship with the leader, but that it was time to settle “this ridiculous War!”

He also warned that if there was not a ceasefire deal soon, he would “have no other choice” but to impose tariffs, taxes and sanctions on “anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”