President Donald Trump, who initially pushed for an immediate ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, now has one option — economic sanctions against Moscow — to help bring the war to an end, Fred Fleitz, a former Trump National Security Council chief of staff, told Newsmax on Sunday.
“He moved towards a comprehensive peace deal, which he wanted quickly, and he provided some pretty significant incentives to Putin to do this,” Fleitz said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America Weekend.”
But after Russian President Vladimir Putin continued with strikes on Ukraine, rejecting the ceasefire, there is no other way to get peace in Ukraine “without punishing Russia and punishing it hard,” said Fleitz.
“It looks like Putin is not willing to listen to reason, so we’re going to have to turn to hurting Russia economically,” he said.
Meanwhile, two weeks after Putin and Trump met in Alaska, the nations are at a “tipping point,” and Trump will be implementing strong sanctions against Russia, Fleitz added.
Trump had put the Russian president “in a position to make some very good decisions,” he said, but Putin chose “bad, irrational decisions that are bad for Russia, for him, and for global security.”
As a result, Fleitz said, “Trump is very close to implementing very tough oil sanctions and then economic sanctions, because this does not just threaten global security, it threatens the reputation of the United States. And Trump’s not going to stand for this.”
Fleitz also criticized European allies for not fully supporting Washington’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
While he said ideas such as a buffer zone or peacekeepers from neutral states could be workable, he warned that some European governments may be undercutting U.S. policy.
“European states may be telling [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to take positions that are inconsistent with what Trump is trying to do to end the war,” Fleitz said, noting similar advice was given before what he called Zelenskyy’s “disastrous trip to the White House” in February.
He added that some Democrats in Congress have also urged positions that contradict Trump’s approach.
“We all have to work together here. We have to stand behind Trump’s efforts to end this war and not give Zelenskyy opinions and advice that contradict what Trump is doing,” Fleitz noted.
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