White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said President Donald Trump and his administration imposed tariffs on India to deter Russia from pursuing the ongoing conflict against Ukraine.
She said the intention behind imposing the sanctions was to put secondary pressure on Russia.
“Look, the president has put tremendous public pressure to bring this war to a close. He’s taken actions, as you’ve seen, sanctions on India and other actions as well,” she was quoted as saying by the media during the press briefing.
“He’s made himself very clear that he wants to see this war end, and he has scoffed at the ideas of others that have been raised that we should wait another month before any meeting takes place,” she said.
Trump recently imposed 25 percent tariffs on select Indian goods and a penalty of another 25 percent for buying Russian oil.
Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
Meanwhile, Donald Trump on Tuesday said he has started arranging for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart in a bid to end the ongoing war, hours after he met Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Washington DC.
Trump said during the meeting that the issue of Security Guarantees for Ukraine was discussed.
In his Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “I had a very good meeting with distinguished guests, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron, of France, President Alexander Stubb, of Finland, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, of Italy, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Friedrich Merz, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in the White House, which ended in a further meeting in the Oval Office.”
“During the meeting we discussed Security Guarantees for Ukraine, which Guarantees would be provided by the various European Countries, with a coordination with the United States of America. Everyone is very happy about the possibility of PEACE for Russia/Ukraine,” he said.
Speaking on arranging a meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, he said: “At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said discussing ‘security guarantees’ remains a key issue that can lead to the end of the war.
He wrote on X: “We discussed security guarantees. This is a key issue, a starting point towards ending the war. We appreciate the important signal from the United States regarding its readiness to support and be part of these guarantees.”
The US president met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week.
Friday’s Alaska summit marked the first US-Russia meeting since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The three-hour session ended without a ceasefire, but Trump insisted the talks had shifted the focus towards a broader settlement.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump earlier wrote on Truth Social.
