— I think he'll keep his word and I think he'll keep his end of the bargain. I hope Zelenski keeps his word, too. said Trump on Monday. In this way, he answered the question of his erstwhile threats to impose "secondary duties" on countries purchasing Russian oil if Russia did not halt fighting in Ukraine. On Monday, Trump noted that he did not want to take this step and that the Russian president would fulfill his promises.
He besides said that akin secondary duties announced by him last week for countries buying oil from Venezuela worked immediately, even though they would not enter into force until Wednesday.
Trump trusts Putin
— It's something I would do if I thought I wasn't doing my job. I did it with Venezuela, secondary duties. And you know what happened? all ship has left port. Did you see that? It was beautiful to see the full port empty. My words were not even finished, and these immense changes occurred,” Trump said.
Like the day before, Trump stated that he ‘heard’ that the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenski wants to retreat from or renegotiate the natural material contract — Although in fact it was the United States that notified the fresh version of the draft agreement on much stricter conditions for Kiev.
The U.S. president claimed that Zelenski allegedly put the condition of entering NATO as a request to sign. He repeated his assessment that Ukrainian ambitions of entering the Alliance were the origin of Russian aggression.
Trump already on Sunday warned Zelenski that if he did not agree to the natural materials agreement — which he considers to be a form of payment for assistance provided to Ukraine — he is facing “great, large problems”.
During the Monday ceremony Trump besides announced that Wednesday — the day of the announcement of “reciprocal duties” on almost all countries of the world — be the “day of rebirth” of America. However, he stated that although duties are theoretically intended to align US rates with those applied by another countries, his administration would be "milder", suggesting that actual rates would be lower.
