US Ambassador to NATO on future sanctions: Russia's ability to finance war will end

If the United States imposes the previously announced sanctions against Russia and its trading partners, Moscow's ability to finance the war will end. This was reported on Newsmax by US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker.

He believes that US President Donald Trump still has leverage to diplomatically resolve Russia's war against Ukraine, as severe sanctions against Russia and countries that trade with it could be imposed next week if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire.

"President Trump obviously understands leverage better than anyone. And I think his announcement on August 8, in the absence of a ceasefire agreement, he's going to impose, I would say, crippling tariffs and sanctions on Russia," Whitaker said.

Ambassador mentions that Russia sells energy resources to China, India and Brazil.

"And these countries are now going to be quite significantly affected by doing business with Russia, and Russia will have no friends. They will have no trading partners. And their ability to finance this war will end," the official emphasized .

Whitaker is convinced that peace can only be achieved through negotiations and diplomacy.

"Both sides will have to come to the negotiating table. Both sides will have to reach an agreement, which most likely does not quite meet their ideal scenario, but at the same time, it is necessary to stop the killing," he said.

Whitaker said he was not worried that harsh sanctions against Russia and countries that do business with it, such as China, would bring the two adversaries closer together. In his opinion, China should stop helping Russia to continue this war, and Russia should stop fighting it.

"This has been going on for three years now, and nothing has changed on the battlefield. And hundreds of soldiers are dying every day. Trump is again going to, as he announced, impose these secondary sanctions on August 8th if we don't have a ceasefire, but that's not what he's limited to. President Trump continues to have options available to him, and he will use them if he sees fit," the ambassador concluded.

• On July 28, Trump shortened his 50-day ultimatum to Putin: he now gave the dictator "10 or 12 days" to conclude a peace deal, otherwise, secondary duties will be imposed on buyers of Russian resources.
• The very next day, the US president said that Putin has 10 days to end the war against Ukraine. At the same time, the head of the US believes that the settlement of the war in Ukraine will take a long time.
• On July 31, US diplomat Kelly said that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine should be reached by August 8, otherwise the US will be ready to take additional measures to ensure peace.