(MENAFN) US President Donald Trump has warned that Washington may impose sanctions and tariffs on both Russia and Ukraine if the two countries fail to make meaningful progress toward resolving their conflict, according to reports.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that it “takes two to tango” and suggested that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky “was not exactly innocent.”

“Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week. If I can save that, by doing sanctions or by just being me, or by using a very strong tariff system that’s very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have,” Trump stated.

He also reiterated his willingness to enforce new economic restrictions on Moscow, adding, “We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.”

Trump criticized his predecessor, Joe Biden, calling him “grossly incompetent” for allowing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to unfold.

“Nobody goes into a war thinking they’re going to lose. They go in – I’m sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win. It’s going to be, you know, we’re going to win. You’re going to beat somebody that’s 15 times your size. Biden shouldn’t have let that happen,” Trump said.

The president also dismissed concerns from Moscow regarding Zelensky’s legitimacy. “Doesn’t matter what they say. Everybody’s posturing. It’s all bullsh*t, ok? Everybody’s posturing,” he told reporters.

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