Trump Threatens Russia With Sanctions After Latest Massive Air Assault On Ukraine

US President Donald Trump threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia over its continuing assault on Ukraine, but suggested that Moscow’s latest large-scale attack was no surprising and said Kyiv must “get on the ball” and commit itself to seeking peace.

Trump’s remarks, in a social media post and a White House appearance on March 7, came hours after Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack targeting energy and gas infrastructure across multiple regions of Ukraine, where Moscow’s all-out invasion is now in its fourth year.

And late on March 7, Ukrainian authorities reported that a Russian attack on the town of Dobropillya in the Donetsk region killed at least four people and injured 18 others, although officials warned that those were only preliminary figures.

Donetsk Regional Military Administration Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram that “the Russians had launched three strikes on the city…four high-rise buildings were damaged.”

Trump’s remarks followed a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on his country’s allies to press Russia to end the war, with an air and sea truce as the first step.

“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7.

“To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late,” he added. “Thank you!!!”

Trump did not go into detail about potential measures. He had spoken a few days after his January 20 inauguration of potentially using “taxes, tariffs, and sanctions” to get Russia to the negotiating table, but no new measures have been announced.

The new comment was one of only a few from Trump in recent weeks about what might be done to bring Russia to the table. It followed tense exchanges between the United States and Ukraine, including a vocal February 28 argument in the White House after which Trump said Zelenskyy was not ready for peace.

Speaking at the White House later on March 7, Trump said that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace, but suggested he wanted stronger assurances from Kyiv.

“I think both parties want it settled,” he said, but “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine, and they don’t have the cards.”

“In terms of the final settlement it may be easier to deal with Russia, which is surprising,” Trump said. He repeated that Russia has been “pounding” Ukraine recently, but said he thinks he understands why.

“I actually think he’s doing what anybody in that position would be doing right now,” Trump said, adding: “I’ve always had a good relationship with Putin. And you know, he wants to end the war.”

“I think he’s going to be more generous than he has to be, and that’s pretty good,” he said. “That means a lot of good things.”

Trump defended his decision this week to suspend military aid to Kyiv and restrict intelligence sharing with Ukraine, saying: “I have to know that they want to settle. If they don’t want to settle, we’re out of there.”

“Ukraine has to get on the ball and get the job done,” he said.

In his evening address on March 7, Zelenskyy said Ukraine wants peace “as soon as possible” and “is determined to be very constructive.”

“The theme is clear: peace as soon as possible, security as reliable as possible,” he said.

A major source of the recent US-Ukraine tension has been Trump’s resistance to Zelenskyy’s repeated requests for concrete security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a cease-fire or peace deal. Asked about it in his White House appearance, Trump said, “Before I even think about [security guarantees] I want to settle the war.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said in a social media post that Russia fired almost 70 cruise and ballistic missiles, as well as launching nearly 200 drones, at various energy facilities in Ukraine in an attack that also hit residential buildings.

He did not say if there were any deaths as a result of the attacks, which come amid a diplomatic push for peace talks that will see a delegation from Ukraine travel to Saudi Arabia next week to meet with US officials with the aim of working out a framework for a peace agreement.

“The first steps to establishing real peace should be to force the sole source of this war, that is, Russia, to stop precisely such attacks against life,” Zelenskyy wrote.

“This can be realistically controlled. Silence in the sky — a ban on the use of missiles, long-range drones, and aerial bombs. And also silence at sea — a real guarantee of normal shipping.”

At the White House event with Trump, national-security adviser Mike Waltz said he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would meet with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia.

Waltz said he thinks the United States is “going to get things back on track with Ukraine.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said he had a “constructive call” with Rubio on March 7 to discuss the upcoming meeting.

“Ukraine wants the war to end, and US leadership is essential for achieving lasting peace. We also discussed ways to advance our bilateral cooperation,” Sybiha said in a post on X.

The massive attack — the 30th such strike on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 — is part of a broader Russian strategy targeting Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure. In the past two weeks, Russian strikes have repeatedly hit energy facilities in the Odesa region.

Ukraine’s air force said the attack started at 3:03 a.m. when Russia launched Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea. Soon after, it warned of the deployment of a MiG-31K fighter jet, which carries Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

Russian forces also launched a barrage of drones in a coordinated assault.

Zelenskyy said F-16 aircraft and Mirage-2000 provided by France were used to help repel the attack. The jets were part of an aid package announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in June 2024.

As a result of the March 7 attack, Poland activated its air-defense systems and scrambled fighter jets. The Polish Armed Forces reported in a statement that, due to Russian long-range aviation activity, Poland and its allies had initiated an aerial operation to monitor and respond to any threats.

Naftohaz, Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, confirmed this was the 17th combined attack on its infrastructure.

The company’s CEO, Roman Chumak, said production facilities essential for gas extraction had been severely affected but restoration efforts were already under way.

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