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US President Donald Trump said he could impose tariffs on Ukraine and Russia if the two countries fail to reach a peace agreement, although he questioned whether the measure would be effective.
Speaking at a campaign rally, Trump said tariffs had helped the United States end five wars and suggested Washington could use the same approach to stop the fighting in Ukraine.
“We ended five wars with tariffs. I said, ‘If you keep fighting, we’re going to put a 200% tariff on you,’ and they stopped fighting. Maybe we should do the same thing immediately with Ukraine and Russia. It never even occurred to me,” Trump said.
However, he immediately expressed doubts about whether tariffs would work in this case, explaining that the United States does not trade enough with either country for the measure to have a significant impact.
“We don’t buy enough from them to do that, so it wouldn’t work,” Trump concluded.
Other developments
During the rally, Trump also expressed hope that Russia’s war against Ukraine was nearing an end and said the United States would bring the “catastrophe” to a close.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that a trilateral meeting involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia could take place in the first half of November.
The Kremlin has also confirmed that peace talks could resume, with Abu Dhabi named as the proposed venue.
