Trump Launches 'Very Angry' Outburst at Putin Over Ukraine

US president threatens tariffs against Russia and bombing of Iran

- Dan Sabbagh

Donald Trump has said he is "pissed off" with Vladimir Putin for his approach towards a ceasefire in Ukraine and has threatened to levy tariffs on Moscow's oil exports if the Russian leader does not agree to a ceasefire in a month.

The US president indicated he would levy a 25% or 50% tariff that would affect countries buying Russian oil. In telephone interviews with NBC News he also threatened to bomb Iran and did not rule out using force in Greenland.

"If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault - which it might not be - but if I think it was Russia's fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia," he said. "That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can't do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all - on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil."

The abrupt change of direction came, Trump said, after Putin had tried to attack the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday. Appearing on Russian TV, Putin had suggested Ukraine could be placed under a temporary UN-led government to organise fresh elections before negotiating a peace deal.

Although Trump has called the Ukrainian president a "dictator", yesterday he said, "I was very angry, pissed off" when Putin "started getting into Zelenskyy's credibility, because that's not going in the right location, you understand?" He argued that "new leadership means you're not gonna have a deal for a long time, right?" and said he wanted to exert pressure on the Kremlin, which has thrown up a string of questions about a peace settlement and only agreed to limited maritime and energy ceasefires so far.