Trump Sets Two-Week Clock on Possible New Sanctions Against Russia

President Donald Trump said on 22 August he will decide within two weeks whether to impose new punitive measures on Russia, citing the lack of progress toward a negotiated end to Moscow’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine. “It’s going to be a very important decision, whether it’s massive sanctions, massive tariffs, both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” he told reporters at the White House. The warning follows Trump’s 15 August meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, after which the U.S. leader lifted the prospect of sanctions to encourage diplomacy. Russian officials signalled little movement. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC that an agenda for a summit between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “not ready at all,” and that consequently no meeting is planned. Zelenskyy, speaking in Kyiv alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, accused Moscow of stalling and urged the United States and its allies to tighten sanctions if Russia remains “reluctant to take diplomatic steps.” Trump’s frustration deepened after a Russian missile strike last week ignited a fire at an American-owned factory in western Ukraine, injuring employees. While the president has left open the option of doing nothing, he said the outcome of the next fortnight would determine whether Washington re-engages as mediator or shifts to what he described as “massive pressure” on the Kremlin.