U.S. President Donald Trump has dramatically shortened the timeline he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin to broker a ceasefire deal with Ukraine, now setting a deadline of 10 to 12 days, down from an initial 50-day window. Speaking in Scotland alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, Trump also threatened to impose import tariffs of up to 100% on Russian goods if a deal is not reached swiftly.
“There’s no reason they’re waiting,” Trump told reporters. “All of a sudden missiles are flying into Kyiv… what’s that all about?” he added, referencing recent Russian strikes that killed at least two civilians and injured more than a dozen at a Kyiv subway station on July 21. An empty kindergarten was also set ablaze in the attack.
Trump had initially set a 50-day deadline on July 14 for Moscow to negotiate a ceasefire, warning that failure would result in severe economic consequences. Russia quickly rejected that ultimatum, calling it “unacceptable.”
Now, with continued airstrikes undermining fragile diplomatic efforts, Trump appears to be losing patience. “This has happened on too many occasions and I don’t like it,” he said Monday. “I’m not so interested in talking anymore… people die the following night with a missile going into a town.”
Despite a previous pledge to resolve the war within 24 hours of taking office, Trump has taken a more confrontational tone in recent weeks. In July, he committed to supplying Ukraine with additional Patriot missile defense systems. This came even after a public disagreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year over U.S. aid levels and military strategy.
Asked by TIME earlier this month how far he would go to defend Ukraine if Putin escalated hostilities beyond the original 50-day deadline, Trump declined to elaborate. “I want to get the war settled… I have a problem, and [Vice President] J.D. [Vance] has a problem — they’re not Americans dying, but there are a lot of people dying,” he said.
The President has long voiced skepticism about the scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine and has indicated that European allies must bear more of the burden in supporting Kyiv. Nevertheless, his latest warning suggests that economic pressure, not military escalation, remains his preferred tactic in pushing for peace.
Whether the compressed timeline or threat of punitive tariffs will shift the Kremlin’s stance remains uncertain, but Trump’s remarks mark a significant hardening of tone as he seeks to enforce what he has described as a “settlement that should already have happened.”