The Trump administration still plans to implement secondary sanctions on Russia on Friday, according to a White House official.
President Donald Trump‘s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Moscow for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Both sides said the meeting went well, but it did not change the president’s stance on implementing sanctions and tariffs if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire by Friday.
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Trump set a 50-day deadline for negotiations last month, but then shortened it to a 10-day time frame after Russia continued carrying out attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
The 10-day deadline is set to expire at the end of the week, and the White House official told the Washington Examiner, “The Russians are eager to continue engaging with the United States. The secondary sanctions are still expected to be implemented on Friday.”
Secondary sanctions penalize third parties that conduct transactions with a country under primary sanctions, in this case, Russia.
The official added, “The meeting with Russia and Special Envoy Witkoff went well,” while President Trump called it “a highly productive meeting,” and said, “Great progress was made!”
Trump acknowledged that they “will work toward” ending the war “in the days and weeks to come.”
Also on Wednesday, the president imposed an additional 25% tariff on India over its continued purchases of Russian oil, raising the total tariff on Indian products to 50%.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits,” Trump said on Monday. “They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine.”
India is the second-largest importer of Russian oil, behind only China. Indian officials have said they intend to continue purchasing Russian oil.
The Trump administration has singled out India in recent weeks as the two sides have engaged in trade negotiations, but it has not announced any new actions against China, the biggest importer of Russian oil.
Even with the looming sanctions, Trump has shared doubts that these measures will actually convince Putin to end the war.
“I don’t know if it’s going to affect Russia, but he wants to, obviously, probably keep the war going,” Trump said of the Russian leader last week, “but we’re going to put on tariffs and the various things you put on. It may or may not affect them. But it could.”
Trump came into the White House for his second term eager to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Over the course of the first six months of his presidency, he sought to convince both sides to agree to a negotiated settlement to end the war. Trump has vacillated widely in condemnations of both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
WITKOFF-PUTIN MEETING WAS ‘CONSTRUCTIVE,’ KREMLIN SAYS AS NEW SANCTIONS DEADLINE LOOMS
In recent weeks, Trump’s ire with Putin has grown as the Russian leader has continued to string along the negotiating efforts without making serious efforts to actually end the conflict. As Putin drags out the conversations, Russian forces continue to carry out near-nightly bombings of Ukrainian cities.
In light of Russia’s refusal to end the war, the U.S. is working with Europe to provide additional military aid to Ukraine. The new plan has European countries buy American weapons to provide to Ukraine or to replace weapons that the countries give to Ukraine themselves. In this new mechanism, European countries are paying for the weapons instead of the US taking on the cost.