BURSTPresident Trump is expressing increased frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose shifting demands in negotiations with Ukraine have drawn out ceasefire talks and set back Trump's hopes of a quick end to the war.
Putin’s demands on Friday for new leadership in Ukraine prompted Trump to issue a rare rebuke of the Russian leader, threatening sanctions on Russian oil exports if Moscow does not demonstrate more flexibility in talks with Kyiv.
“If I think they're tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, referring to Putin.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, who played golf with Trump on Saturday, said he suggested to the president lay out April 20, the Easter holiday, as a deadline for Putin to agree to ceasefire terms that Kyiv has already accepted – or face costs.
“I do think that the President of the United States is a very skillful negotiator, and he's trying to find the right balance,” Stubb said in an interview with Sky News.
“My message was, he's the only one who can do it, and now we need a deadline for the ceasefire. And for me, the deadline would be the 20th of April, when he's been in office for three months, and also when we have Easter.”
Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he expects to speak with Putin this week, adding he was “pissed off” and “angry” over the Russian leader questioning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy, because it moved talks in the wrong direction.
Trump and Putin last spoke by phone on March 18.
Ukraine has backed U.S. proposals for both an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and more limited proposals for a ceasefire on energy infrastructure, and a deal to limit attacks in the Black Sea.
However, Russia’s negotiators during talks in Saudi Arabia last week placed various demands on any deal, calling on the U.S. to help lift sanctions on Russian banks and promote Russian fertilizer and agriculture on the world market.
“I think Putin is a very slick communicator,” said George Barros, the Russia Team Lead at the Institute for the Study of War.
“This is sort of where Putin is strongest. And I think, when you put him in a room or phone call with Donald Trump, or have their deputies speak, the Russians are very good at sort of massaging the language and hitting the nerves and making this thing look like everything is going to be ok,” he said.
But Putin’s remarks calling for a transitional government in Ukraine set Trump off.
“He's [Putin] supposed to be making a deal with him [Zelensky], whether you like him or you don't like him. So I wasn't happy with that,” Trump said, threatening secondary tariffs on countries that import Russian oil.
Richard Haas, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and veteran diplomat, questioned the effectiveness of such a move on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Monday morning.
“That essentially means you would sanction China, India, and Turkey, the three biggest importers of Russian energy. So we'd create bilateral issues with all of them without really having a significant impact on Russia's economy,” he said.
And Trump has shown a willingness to flip-flop on tariff threats when he’s able to extract some concessions or faces major blowback.
The Trump administration has prioritized improving relations with Russia, with top officials at times repeating Kremlin talking points in its pressure campaign to bring Ukraine to the table.
“I don't regard Putin as a bad guy. That is a complicated situation, that war, and all the ingredients that led up to it. It’s never just one person,” said Steve Witkoff, who has been Trump’s point-person in direct talks with Putin.
Trump and his allies have also pinned some of the blame for the war on Zelensky, and just last month Trump himself was attacking Zelensky’s legitimacy because elections have been paused amid the war.
But many Republicans still back Ukraine, and have been skeptical about Putin agreeing to an acceptable deal.
“I am extremely skeptical that Russia will accept the ceasefire and I am very doubtful they want to end this war,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a fierce Trump supporter, said in a post on the social media site X on March 12.
But Graham has provided space for Trump’s negotiations, holding off on legislation to impose “bone-breaking” sanctions and tariffs on Russia for refusing to halt the war. Graham promised to introduce the legislation in mid-March.
Stubb, the Finnish president, said he also warned Trump about Putin’s credibility.
“My message to President Trump, when he asked, ‘Can I trust Putin’ was, ‘No, you can't,’” he said.
Barros, of ISW, said the best war to pressure Putin is on the battlefield, by giving Ukrainians more firepower to exacerbate Russia’s military losses of soldiers and material.
“It’s the protracted war – that is what is destroying the Russian reserves,” he said.
Barros called the Russian burn-rate in Ukraine “eye-watering” and fundamentally unsustainable. ISW estimates Russia is losing between 30,000 to 40,000 troops per month by death or injury, putting mounting pressure on the pension system that supports the wounded soldiers and families of those killed.
Russia is also facing shortfalls in troops, a gap partially being filled by North Korean soldiers, and its military industry is struggling to replace its weapons at the same rate it's using them on the battlefield.
Barros said Russia has abandoned past red lines when Ukraine asserts its strength on the frontlines, pointing to the 2022 counteroffensive in which Kyiv won back the occupied city of Kherson.
“The Russians lay permanent stakes, they say Kherson is a Russian city that’s never going to go back to Ukraine and then they had to flee, lest they face encirclement. That’s the way you beat the Russians.”