BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — President Donald Trump said Saturday he believes the would end if all NATO countries stopped buying oil from Russia and placed tariffs on China of 50% to 100% for its purchases of Russian petroleum.
Meanwhile, Polish and allied aircraft were deployed in a “preventive” operation in Poland's airspace because of a threat of drone strikes in neighboring areas of Ukraine, and the airport in the eastern Polish city of Lublin was closed, authorities said. The alert lasted about two hours.
It came after multiple , prompting NATO to send fighter jets to shoot them down and underlining long-held concerns about the expansion of Russia’s more than three-year war in Ukraine. Trump played down the severity of the incursion and Russia's motives by saying it
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the drone incursion was “unacceptable and unfortunate and dangerous” as he judged NATO’s response so far to be appropriate. Still, he said it was unclear if the drones were intentionally sent to Poland.
“The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically,” Rubio said. “If that’s the case, that the evidence leads us there, then obviously that would be a highly escalatory move.”
Trump posted Saturday on his social media site that NATO'S commitment to winning the war "has been far less than 100%" and the purchase of Russian oil by some members of the alliance is "shocking." As if speaking with NATO members, he said: "It greatly weakens your negotiating position, and bargaining power, over Russia."
Since 2023, NATO member Turkey is the third largest buyer of Russian oil, after China and India, according to the . Other members of the 32-state alliance involved in purchasing Russian oil include Hungary and Slovakia.
The Republican president imposed a 25% import tax on goods from India for buying of Russian energy products. He placed in total a 50% tariff on India, though he indicated negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could help settle differences.
It's unclear whether Trump would want to directly confront Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. That leaves uncertainty whether the threats might lead to new tariffs or a ban on Russian oil purchases.
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After they met for about 2½ hours in Alaska, Putin said he and Trump reached an “understanding” on the war. Neither shared details.
While Trump as a candidate promised to end the war quickly, he has yet to hit the pressure points needed to end the violence and at times was seen as reluctant to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his post, Trump said responsibility for the war fell on his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He did not include in that list Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine.
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On Ukrainian social media, memes of Putin and Trump walking down a red carpet strewn with dead Ukrainian bodies were widely shared.
Congress seeks to get the U.S. president to back a bill toughening sanctions, after Trump last month hosted Putin in Alaska for talks that failed to deliver on progress toward peace.
The U.S. and its allies also seek to show a firmer degree of resolve against Russia.
The Polish military’s operational command posted on X on Saturday afternoon that ground-based air defense and reconnaissance systems were on high alert. It stressed “these actions are preventive in nature,” aimed at securing Poland's airspace and protecting the country's citizens. It cited a threat of drone strikes in regions of Ukraine bordering Poland, but didn't give further details.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk also posted that “preventive air operations” began in Polish airspace because of the threat. The government security center warned of a threat of air attack for several border counties in the region near the airport.
Russia said it didn't target Poland on Wednesday, and Moscow’s ally, Belarus, said the drones went astray because they were jammed. Still, European leaders expressed certainty that the incursions were a deliberate provocation by Russia.
Polish aircraft scrambled repeatedly in recent months to patrol the country's airspace in connection with Russian airstrikes in Ukraine, but those strikes usually occurred overnight or in the early morning.
Separately, NATO member Romania said it deployed two F-16 jets to intercept a drone that briefly entered its airspace Saturday afternoon. It said the drone posed no "imminent danger to the security of the population.” Authorities didn't specify where they thought the drone originated from.
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At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Friday, acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said America "will defend every inch of NATO territory" and the drones entering Poland "intentionally or otherwise show immense disrespect for good-faith U.S. efforts to bring an end to this conflict."
Britain took steps Friday to penalize the trading of Russian oil, including a ban on 70 vessels allegedly used in its transportation. The United Kingdom also sanctioned 30 individuals and companies, included businesses based in China and Turkey, that supplied Russia with electronics, chemicals, explosives and other weapons components.
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The reaction followed a pattern of misinformation and conspiracy theories that often come after breaking news events.
Trump in his post Saturday said a NATO ban on Russian oil plus tariffs on China would "also be of great help in ENDING this deadly, but RIDICULOUS, WAR." The U.S. already has , while China has a 10% tariff on American goods.
His post builds on a call Friday with finance ministers in the Group of Seven, a forum of industrialized democracies. During the call, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called on their counterparts to have a “unified front” to cut off “the revenues funding Putin's war machine," according to Greer's office.