US president has been unusually reticent about plans to punish Russia if it does not agree to end Ukraine war
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fter needing six months to conclude that Vladimir Putin may not be a kindred transactional authoritarian leader, but an ideological nationalist seeking the return of what “belongs to Russia”, the deadline Donald Trump set for the Russian president to agree a Ukraine ceasefire or face US sanctions on oil exports arrives on Friday.
What Trump – who some had claimed was a Russian asset – does next to punish Putin could define his presidency.
