Despite intense pressure from the rest of the world on behalf of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has done his best to rebuff every olive branch extended to him. President Trump has almost taken the rejection personally. Trump latest bid shortened the 50-day wait for a cease fire to ten days. WOR White House correspondent Jon Decker has covered all of President Trump’s previous attempts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to detail the latest effort to get Putin to the table.
Decker told host Larry Mendte that this plan may be the best one that Putin sees: “We know that the President’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, a New Yorker, is going to be meeting potentially with Vladimir Putin tomorrow. He’s traveling to Russia and will certainly meet with Russian officials. He’s met with Putin a number of times, most recently in April, and this is the last best chance for trying to get Russia to come to the negotiating table before that deadline that the President has set… (as) part of an ultimatum- either come to a peace deal or the U.S. will institute really stiff tariffs on Russian goods, as well as 100% tariffs on any country that does business with Russia, that purchases Russian oil, for instance.”
Decker feels Trump’s biggest worry is that Putin disregards peace talks yet again, because now there’s no chance of extending a deadline. “(President Trump) described Russia as wily in terms of getting around the sanctions, so I think the President and our allies need to figure out a way to squeeze Russia and force that country and force President Putin to the negotiating table.”
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