Trump Gives Putin Hard Deadline

President Donald Trump appeared to give Russian President Vladimir Putin a hard two-week deadline to end the Kremlin's war with Ukraine while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday (May 28).

“We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not, and if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently, but it will take about a week and a half to two weeks,” Trump said via the New York Post.

The president was then asked whether he thought Putin wanted to end the war, to which he responded, "I can't tell you that, but i'll let you know in about two weeks." Trump added that he was "very disappointed" by the recent missile and drone attacks launched by Russia after he had previously claimed that Putin was "playing with fire" while addressing the Kremlin's attacks in a post shared on his Truth Social account.

“When I see rockets being shot into cities, that’s no good. We aren’t going to allow it,” Trump said via the New York Post.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin had no plans to speak with Trump as Russia's defense ministry said its forces captured three more villages in eastern Ukraine on Thursday (May 29). Trump had previously claimed that Putin skipped peace talks with Ukraine because he wasn't there.

“Look, nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together. Okay?” Trump said on Air Force One when asked about the scheduled meeting via the New York Post earlier this month.

“And obviously, he wasn’t going to go. He was going to go — but he thought I was going to go. He wasn’t going if I wasn’t there,” he continued at the time. “And I don’t believe anything’s going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together. But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.”

Putin previously proposed direct "peace" talks with Ukraine on May 11, three years after sending thousands of troops to invade the neighboring country and start an ongoing war resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin said from the Kremlin via Reuters. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”

Trump shared a post on his Truth Social account favoring the potential discussions.

"A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine! Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending “bloodbath” hopefully comes to an end. It will be a whole new, and much better, WORLD. I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens. The USA wants to focus, instead, on Rebuilding and Trade. A BIG week upcoming!" Trump wrote at the time.