That included a Monday joint statement from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal calling Trump’s threat of ramped-up economic penalties if Russia doesn’t cut a peace deal in next 50 days “a real executive hammer to drive the parties to the negotiating table.”

President Donald Trump may have expected a Russian shudder of fear to greet his threat of “very severe tariffs” on the country if it didn’t agree a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Bipartisan senators Graham and Blumenthal lauded Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs against Moscow and vowed to continue working on their own "sledgehammer" sanctions package.

Donald Trump’s remarks on Ukraine on Monday were far from the biggest announcement the US president could have made.

Pentagon officials said details were still being worked out, and experts doubted Mr. Trump’s threat of huge tariffs for Russian trading partners.

President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky whether Kyiv was able to hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to a senior Ukrainian official familiar with their exchange in a July 4 phone call.

Ukrainians have begun to credit First Lady Melania Trump for her husband’s 180 on support for Russia and President Vladimir Putin in their all out war on Ukraine.

PEPFAR has not operated in Russia since 2012, when President Vladimir Putin kicked the United States Agency for International Development out of the country. U.S. law prohibits the use of any federal funds to pay for abortions. Funding abortions through PEPFAR would imply not just waste, but serious crimes or negligence, or both.