Trump gives Russia '10-12 days' to reach peace deal or face more sanctions

US President Donald Trump has set a deadline of "10 or 12" days for Russia to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine, he said July 28, pledging to cut short a previous 50-day window before his administration would impose sweeping new sanctions.

Speaking at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said Russia now faces a deadline of "about 10 or 12 days from today" to reach a deal with Ukraine.

"There's no reason in waiting," he told the UK press conference. "I want to be generous, but we just don't see any progress being made."

Trump said July 14 that he would give Russian President Vladimir Putin 50 days to reach a peace agreement, and warned of punishing sanctions for the Kremlin's trade partners if the deadline went unmet.

The US president threatened to impose 100% secondary tariffs on any country that buys Russian exports if no deal is reached, signaling what could be a major policy overhaul that could hamstring economies like China and India.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, India, China and Turkey have emerged as Russia's largest energy consumers and have helped to keep its economy afloat by purchasing billions of barrels of its oil, which is still estimated to account for around a third of the government's revenues.

To date in 2025, the three countries have accounted for roughly 60% of all Russian crude shipments, amounting to some 5 million b/d, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data.

Tougher sanctions could also hit Russian trade of other commodities such as metals and minerals, coal, wheat and fertilizers, which are also shipped to countries including China, Kazakhstan and Brazil.

Punitive "secondary sanctions" from the US could increase pressure on countries such as China that have already felt the pressure of tougher tariff policies from the Trump administration on both their domestic industries and world economic health.

Focus on oil

For Russian oil importers, tougher sanctions would come fresh on the heels of a recent policy shift from the EU, which on July 18 said it would ban refined products made from Russian crude oil starting next year.

Indian officials had previously hinted that US secondary sanctions would prove more disruptive than those announced by the EU, and have suggested its refiners would seek out to alternative crude suppliers in the Western Hemisphere.

"If it happens, we will deal with it. If one door closes, another opens," India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh, told an energy seminar on July 17. "But let's not start to draw any inferences even before something has happened."

Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Putin for a lack of progress in reaching a peace deal with Ukraine, and has previously issued various ultimatums for the Russian president to reach a deal.

In March, Trump initially threatened a 25%-50% "secondary tariff" on all Russian oil. He has been reported to have opposed a reduction in the G7 price cap on Russian crude, which the EU reduced on July 18.

Meanwhile, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored the country's close ties with global trade partners and slammed Western attempts to "impede its natural progress," Russia's Tass news reported.

"We have a great many partners and like-minded allies," he said at the Terra Scientia National Educational Youth Forum in the Moscow region.

"India, China, Russia, Turkey and Iran: all these countries represent great civilizations, with centuries of history, and these civilizational ties cannot be broken," Lavrov told the forum.