WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was ready to sanction Moscow, but on the condition that all North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies agree to completely halt purchases of Russian oil and implement their own sanctions.
He also suggested members of the transatlantic alliance consider slapping tariffs of 50 percent to 100 percent on China as a way to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, which he described as a letter to all NATO nations and the world.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Russia with additional sanctions — including last weekend after the Kremlin unleashed its biggest-ever aerial barrage against Ukraine — as a way to hit at revenue Moscow needs for its grinding war.
But so far he has failed to follow through, frustrating Kyiv.
The president, who met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last month at a summit in Alaska, branded NATO nations’ purchase of Russian oil “shocking” and said it weakens their bargaining power over Moscow.
“Anyway, I am ready to ‘go’ when you are. Just say when?”
Trump also raised the prospect of NATO imposing tariffs on China, which is believed to have boosted strategic cooperation with Moscow and held a high-profile summit with Putin recently in Beijing.
“I believe that (NATO sanctions on Russia), plus NATO, as a group, placing 50 percent to 100 percent TARIFFS ON CHINA, to be fully withdrawn after the WAR with Russia and Ukraine is ended, will also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR,” Trump said.
“China has a strong control, and even grip, over Russia, and these powerful Tariffs will break that grip.”
If the 32-member alliance “does as I say, the WAR will end quickly,” Trump said. “If not, you are just wasting my time.”
Warplanes scrambled
Meanwhile, Romania became the latest NATO member state to report a drone incursion into its airspace Saturday, as Poland scrambled aircraft in response to fresh Russian drone strikes just over the border in Ukraine.
Romania’s defense ministry said Saturday that the country’s airspace had been breached by a drone during a Russian attack on infrastructure in neighboring Ukraine.
The country scrambled two F-16 fighter jets late on Saturday to monitor the situation following the strikes, said a defense ministry statement.
The jets “detected a drone in national airspace” and tracked it until “it disappeared from the radar” near the Romanian village of Chilia Veche, it added.
Also Saturday, Poland said it and its NATO allies had deployed helicopters and aircraft as Russian drones struck Ukraine not far from its border.
Because of the drone threat, “Polish and allied aircraft are operating in our airspace, and ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached their highest level of alert,” the country’s military command posted in a statement on X.
Later Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the high alert had been lifted, while cautioning: “We remain vigilant.”
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone crashed into one of the country’s largest oil refining complexes on Saturday, sparking a fire and causing minor damage, a Russian official said.
The complex, which belongs to Russian oil company Bashneft, lies on the outskirts of the central Russian city of Ufa around 1,400 kilometers from the front line in Ukraine.
Videos posted on social media appeared to show a drone drifting towards the facility before exploding in a ball of flames, sending a cloud of smoke into the sky.