President Trump on Thursday said he would consider imposing stiff sanctions, taxes and high tariffs on Russia to end its nearly three-year war with Ukraine.

In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, Mr. Trump said all consider a variety of harsh punishments if Russian President Vladimir Putin is unwilling to negotiate an end to the conflict.

“If they don’t settle this soon I’m going to put massive tariffs on Russia and massive taxes and also big sanctions,” Mr. Trump said in the interview, his first since becoming president a second time. “I don’t want to do that. I love the Russian people. They’re great people. I don’t want to do that, but we’ve got to get this war ended.”

Mr. Trump said that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy also wants to settle the war, but added that he could have prevented the invasion in the first place.

“He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either,” Mr. Trump said. “He shouldn’t have allowed this to happen.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump had repeatedly pledged to settle the war between Ukraine and Russia in a day. He also said that if he had been president in 2022,  Russia would never have invaded Ukraine.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.