‘Takes two to tango’: Trump mulls punishing Ukraine, as well as Russia

Washington: US President Donald Trump says he may have to punish Ukraine as well as Russia if he does not believe they are sincere about peace, and that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin the two countries may have to “fight for a little while” before peacemakers could intervene, after Ukraine’s surprise drone strike on Russian bombers.

“It could be on both countries to be honest,” he said of the possibility of imposing punishment if Ukraine and Russia did not pursue peace. “You know, it takes two to tango, but they’ll be, we’re going to be very tough, whether it’s Russia or anybody else.

US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday.Credit: Bloomberg

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy,” Trump said before a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office on Thursday (Friday AEST). “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.

“And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday. I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart’.”

The Trump administration also imposed sanctions on Thursday (Friday AEST) on four judges at the International Criminal Court, in an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a past decision to open a case into alleged war crimes by United States troops in Afghanistan.

The ICC slammed the move, saying it was an attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution that provides hope and justice to millions of victims of “unimaginable atrocities”.

During a more than two-hour-long call with Putin on Wednesday, Trump said he had urged the Russian leader to refrain from retaliating to the drone attack, in which Ukraine says it damaged or destroyed 41 Russian aircraft, but he fully expected Moscow to strike back.

“He got hit,” Trump said of Putin. “He’s been doing hitting, so I understand it, but he got hit hard, and I don’t think he’s playing games.

“It’s probably not going to be pretty. I don’t like it,” Trump said, describing what he called “great hatred” between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin confirmed that Putin had told Trump that Moscow was obliged to retaliate. Five people were killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine on Thursday, including a one-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother, in the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky.

Russia’s drone attack in Pryluky, in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine on Thursday.Credit: Ukraine Emergency Service/AP

The Kremlin also accused Britain on Thursday of being involved in the surprise Ukrainian drone strike on Russia at the weekend.

“Such a kind of attack involves, of course, provision of very high technology, so-called geospaced data, which can only be done by those who have it in possession. And this is London and Washington,” Russian ambassador to London Andrei Kelin told Sky News, as reported by the UK Telegraph.

“I don’t believe that America [is involved], that has been denied by President Trump, definitely, but it has not been denied by London.”

Downing Street said it would never comment on operational matters at home or abroad.

Satellite image analysis shows destroyed and damaged aircraft at Belaya air base in Russia.Credit: Chris Biggers / Janes

European leaders are worried that Trump, who has expressed frustration over efforts to bring an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, will abandon Ukraine peace talks and US support for Kyiv. Trump said during the meeting with Merz that he believed Germany agreed with him about the need for an end to the conflict with Ukraine. Merz reiterated his support for Ukraine.

“My personal view is clear on that we are on the side of Ukraine, and we are trying to get them stronger and stronger, just to make Putin stop this war,” Merz said.

Trump’s rhetoric may alarm European partners, who are hoping to convince him to ramp up pressure on Putin to force the Russian leader to the negotiating table.

Putin has rejected calls for a ceasefire; Trump is expected to meet key US allies at the G7 and a NATO summit later this month.

“We are all looking for measures and instruments to bring this terrible war to an end,” Merz said. “So let’s talk about what we can do jointly, and we are ready to do what we can. And you know that we gave support to Ukraine and that we are looking for more pressure on Russia.”

Thursday’s meeting between Merz and Trump was an early test for the 69-year-old conservative who became Germany’s new leader last month. Merz is visiting Washington in a bid to bolster ties strained by Trump’s sweeping tariffs and Russia’s war in Ukraine – issues expected to dominate their agenda.

Merz presented Trump with the birth certificate of his German grandfather, who was born in the village of Kallstadt in 1869 and later immigrated to New York as a 16-year-old and made his fortune in the restaurant business.

“We’ll put it up in a place of honour,” Trump said.

The gift is part of Merz’s charm offensive and is supposed to remind the US president of his German roots. But it clearly also carries a political message for Trump, who has criticised post-war Germany for having benefited from US military protection without having paid its fair share.

The timing of Merz’s visit is critical for trade talks, with just weeks to go before Trump’s threatened 50 per cent tariff on nearly all European Union goods is set to take effect. The EU and the US have been engaged in talks to avert higher import taxes, but the process has been rocky, with Trump bemoaning the level of progress and issuing fresh threats that have heightened tensions.

Trump on Tuesday signed an order doubling US steel and aluminium tariffs to 50 per cent, angering European officials, who say the move undermines negotiations and threatened retaliatory measures if a deal is not reached.

Trump has suggested that if he is unable to reach deals with trading partners that he will just settle on a tariff level.

“We’ll end up, hopefully, with a trade deal or, or we’ll do something, you know, we’ll do the tariffs,” Trump told Merz on Thursday. “I mean, I’m OK with the tariffs, or we make a deal with the trade.”

Trump’s complaints about the EU are longstanding. He recently accused the bloc of slow-walking negotiations and unfairly targeting US companies with lawsuits and regulations. He threatened the higher 50 per cent tariff on the bloc starting from June 1, but delayed it until July 9 after a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

At home, the far-right Alternative for Germany wants Merz to break with Brussels to resolve the trade dispute, an idea the chancellor has rejected.

Bloomberg, Reuters

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