President Donald Trump knows the Ukraine war is a horror show and bloody tyrant Vladimir Putin has been “tapping us along” — yet the prez still delays the “very severe” sanctions on Russia and its trading partners that would squeeze Moscow’s economy enough to force it to the table.

“Russia is, in fact, losing this war,” Trump special envoy Gen. Keith Kellogg said Monday, paying an insane and unsustainable price in blood for every yard of ground his forces gain: “If he was winning, he’d be in Kyiv. If he’s winning, he’d be west of the Dnipro River.”

Kellog and USAF Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both report they told Trump this before the prez’s sitdown with Putin in Alaska.

Russia’s seen a million casualties since November 2022, to gain less than 1% of Ukrainian territory; it’s now bleeding as badly to advance a few feet on the front in Donbas and Donetsk.

Putin pretends he’s winning, but keeps resorting to desperation terror tactics — relentless drone and missile barrages aimed at civilians behind the lines; sending drones into Poland time and again to raise fears of a much wider war.

Yet our president just said it’s still up to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to “make a deal” — when Putin won’t even talk unless Kyiv effectively surrenders first.

Trump’s talked for months about “very severe” sanctions to get Putin to negotiate, yet on Saturday he added a new condition: He’s “ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA.”

“I am ready to ‘go’ when you are,” Trump added. “Just say when?”

But Europe basically has gone: It has already curbed Russian oil imports by 90% since the start of the war, while even the United States still buys some supplies from Russia — fertilizer, palladium, uranium — totaling $3 billion in 2024.

By citing NATO, the prez mainly is targeting Turkey, the world’s third-largest importer of Russian oil — yet he knows autocrat Recep Tayyip Erdogan won’t quit buying anytime soon.

If that’s Trump’s excuse for holding off, his threats are hollow.

China shipped $160 billion to Russia last year for goods, including $63 billion for oil; if most of Europe will join the US in sanctioning Beijing for that trade, it will cease — and Putin’s economy and war machine will grind to a halt.

It’s been nine weeks since Trump vowed those “very severe” penalties if Moscow didn’t bend within 10 days.

The Alaska summit didn’t prove the breakthrough that Putin had led Team Trump to expect; Vlad won’t meet with Zelensky and has only stepped up his bombing of Ukraine’s civilians and launched his Polish drone gambit.

Congress — 85 senators — is itching to impose new sanctions on nations that buy oil from Russia, but Republicans want Trump to give the green light first . . . and now he’s passing the buck to Erdogan?

Keep finding excuses not to make good on your threats, and you tank your own credibility.

Tell the Senate it’s time, Mr. President: Make Putin feel the pain you’ve promised.