Trump threatened to impose economic penalties on Russia

US President Donald Trump threatened to impose "devastating" economic penalties on Russia if President Vladimir Putin rejects the deal, reports Anadolu.

He said that the fate of a ceasefire deal that would bring the war in Ukraine to a halt for 30 days is now in Russia's hands after Kyiv backed the proposal.

"It's up to Russia now, but we've had a good relationship with both parties, actually, and we'll see. People are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully, we can get a ceasefire from Russia. And if we do, I think that would be 80% of the way to getting this horrible blood bath to end," he said as he hosted Irish Premier Micheal Martin at the White House.

Trump threatened to impose "devastating" economic penalties on Russia if President Vladimir Putin rejects the deal.

"There are things you can do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do that, because I want to get peace," he said. "We're getting close to maybe getting something done.

Ukraine on Tuesday accepted the 30-day truce, which Trump has called a "total ceasefire," following talks with a US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz in Saudi Arabia.

A joint statement issued after the meeting omitted "security guarantees," essentially a commitment from the US to step in if Russia violated the ceasefire, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a late-night video message that they were discussed during the meeting.

Zelenskyy said the US and Ukraine will talk about security guarantees in greater detail if a ceasefire is implemented._Agencies.