Russia Reacts to Trump's Deadline Over Ukraine War

Top Russian officials on Tuesday responded to President Donald Trump’s new deadline for Russia to make progress toward a cease-fire with Ukraine.

On Monday, Trump told reporters in Scotland that he is “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin for continuing the conflict, saying he would shorten a 50-day negotiating window to 10 days.

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Moscow has “taken into account President Trump’s statement yesterday,” according to Russian state-run media.

Underscoring that Russia will continue to engage in fighting in Ukraine, Peskov said that Moscow remains “committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and to ensure our interests in the course of this settlement,” according to a translation of his comments on the TASS news website.

Peskov said that Russia is interested in rebuilding ties with the United States but that “so far, the normalization process is proceeding sluggishly; we would like to see more momentum.”

In a post on X, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of Putin who is the deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said Trump was playing “a game of ultimatums” that could lead to a war involving the United States.

“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with [Trump’s] own country,” Medvedev said.

In recent months, during talks, Russia hasn’t accepted any cease-fire deals with the United States while ramping up long-range strikes on Ukraine. Both U.S. and Ukrainian officials are calling for a full and immediate cease-fire after more than three years of war.

On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in more talks with Putin. He said sanctions and tariffs would be used as penalties for Moscow if it did not meet Trump’s demands.

Meanwhile, Trump recently started threatening sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. The fresh deadline suggests the president is prepared to move forward on those threats after previous hesitation to do so.

“I’m going to make a new deadline of about ... 10 or 12 days from today,” Trump told reporters alongside a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. “There’s no reason in waiting ... we just don’t see any progress being made.”

Trump added that there is now “no reason to wait,” adding that penalties against Russia could include “sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs.”

“I’m disappointed in President Putin,” Trump said, adding that he loves “the Russian people” and doesn’t want to impose new sanctions.

“I’m going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen,” he said.

The president has touted his role in ending conflicts between India and Pakistan, as well as Rwanda and Congo. Before returning to the White House in January, Trump campaigned on a promise to end Russia’s conflict with Ukraine in a short period of time.

“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” Trump said on Monday. “And I say that’s not the way to do it.”