Russian Official Mocks Trump’s Tariff 100% Threat as ‘theatrical ultimatum’ in Ukraine Standoff

US President Donald Trump has escalated his stance against Russia by threatening to impose severe tariffs if Moscow fails to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within the next 50 days.

Donald Trump told the reporters during a meeting with the secretary general of NATO on July 14 that he is “very unhappy with Russia”, threatening to slap Russia with 100% “secondary” tariffs unless it secured a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.

On Monday morning, Trump met with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at the White House and then announced that he would impose 100% “secondary” tariffs on Russia. “We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs,” the president said.

Trump didn’t specify how these tariffs will be implemented.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, dismissed Donald Trump’s threat to impose 100% import tariffs on Russia if no Ukraine ceasefire deal is reached within 50 days as a “theatrical ultimatum” unlikely to sway Moscow.

In a post on X, Medvedev responded to Trump’s announcement, saying: “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care.”

This is Moscow’s first official reaction to the statements Trump made on Monday.

Trump’s announcement came after months of rising frustration in the White House over Russia’s intensifying bombardments of Ukraine and its failure to commit to a full ceasefire.

Speaking on Sunday, Trump said of Russian president Vladimir Putin, “He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening. There’s a little bit of a problem there.”

The US president expressed growing frustration with Putin’s refusal to negotiate a ceasefire, adding that he was “disappointed” by the lack of progress toward a resolution despite earlier talks between the two leaders.

From his side, Mark Rutte after the meeting with the US president said: “We’re already delivering on decisions from the NATO Summit in a major way, bringing together more spending, more production and more support to Ukraine. Russia’s brutality needs to stop – this new initiative will help deliver just and lasting peace.”

Trump’s new measures represent a heightened level of pressure on Russia and its allies, with the goal of forcing Moscow to the negotiating table.

While Trump’s stance on Russia has hardened, the outcome of his tariff threat will depend on whether the US can effectively use economic leverage to shift the balance in favour of a peaceful resolution.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP COMMENTS: “And one of the reasons that you’re here today is to hear that we are very unhappy—I am—with Russia. But we’ll discuss that maybe a different day. But we’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100%. You’d call them secondary tariffs—you know what that means.

“But today we’re going to talk about something else. And as you know, we’ve spent $350 billion approximately on this war with Russia and Ukraine.

“I would like to see it end. It wasn’t my war. It was Biden’s war. It’s not my war. I’m trying to get you out of it. And we want to see it end.

“And I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there.

“So based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days. It’s very simple. And they’ll be at 100%. And that’s the way it is. It can’t be more simple. It’s just the way it is.

“I hope we don’t have to do it. But regardless, we are going to be—we make the greatest military equipment in the world.”