by
Austin BayJuly 29, 2025
On Monday, July 28, during a trip to Britain, President Donald Trump dramatically reduced the time Russian President Vladimir Putin has to end the Russo-Ukraine War.
For some five months, Trump has tried to cajole, hustle and verbally compel a cessation of hostilities between Putin's regime and Ukraine. After a diplomatic scuffle, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Ukrainian government agreed to negotiate.
Trump set a September deadline for Kremlin compliance.
Alas, Vlad the Mad, wedded to his dream of a New Russian Empire, talked peace but walked the walk of mass drone and missile attacks blasting Ukrainian homes and hospitals.
Trump had enough. July 28: "I'm going to make a new deadline of about 10, 10 or 12 days from today. There's no reason in waiting. It was 50 days, I wanted to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made." No progress by Putin. Trump later added: "... Every time I think it's going to end he (Putin) kills people."
Go to the calendar. From July 28, count 10 and 12 days forward. Aug. 7 to Aug. 9?
You don't need to be a World War II historian to know this Aug. 9 is the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki. Who knows? Trump might pull the enhanced trade and sanctions trigger Aug. 6, the 80th anniversary of atomic war's Hiroshima debut.
The bombs ended WWII.
No -- I'm not predicting nuclear war. However, I think Putin will get the message. In a metaphorical sense, Trump intends to nuke the Putin regime's economy and give its key trading partners a very tough choice: Face 100% (possibly higher) U.S. tariffs if they continue to trade or financially engage with Putin's regime.
Note Trump has spent the last four months creating and energizing his new global trade regimen. The U.S. market is the globe's economic driver and its center. U.S. economic influence is pervasive. Essentially, Trump intends to economically embargo Putin's regime and its various supporters and then strangle their economies.
That's siege warfare. Trump bets even Communist China will weigh the risks.
I don't think Trump will back down. During her July 29 Pod Force One Program, Miranda Devine asked Trump, "How will it (Ukraine war) end?"
He replied, "To be determined ... Let's see what happens."
During Devine's interview, Trump lamented Russia's weekly slaughter of "thousands of souls." Trump confirmed his new deadline. "It's a deadline ... After the deadline we'll do sanctions or something." He conceded ending the war would likely take time. Well, sieges take time.
The clock ticks.
Putin has options. He can try negotiating, but Trump won't permit stalling and glad-handing. Putin can flat out reject negotiations. He can ignore Trump's enhanced sanctions and see what happens if and when they are imposed. Perhaps Putin believes he can destroy Trump's new trading regimen.
On July 29, RBC Ukraine quoted Zelenskyy on the sanctions: "Moscow is very afraid of them (harsh sanctions), even though they pretend these measures won't change anything ... Our intelligence data tells a completely different story. That's why it is important to increase sanctions pressure and force the aggressor to peace."
Putin's Russia is in hideous economic shape. Not even Putin's propagandists believe Russian inflation is a mere 9% to 10%. Russian highways and railroads are deteriorating. Spare parts shortages have idled 100,000 railroad freight cars. Siberia is vulnerable to Chinese meddling and absorption. No kidding.
For more details, see my July 9 column, "Russia: The Vulnerable Sick Man of Eurasia."