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US President Donald Trump said he was not ready to impose new sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine despite mounting pressure from G7 allies and members of Congress.
Speaking alongside UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit in Canada on Monday, Trump said he was sceptical of new sanctions on Russia, even as other members of the group were expected to announce further punitive measures against Moscow.
“Don’t forget, you know, sanctions cost us a lot of money,” Trump said. “When I sanction a country, that costs the US a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said.
“Sanctions are not that easy. It’s not just a one-way street,” he added.
The US president’s comments highlighted the rift among western allies over the war in Ukraine on the eve of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival at the summit.
Trump has grown frustrated with his inability to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, which he had pledged during the 2024 presidential campaign. Yet he has been unwilling to take more punitive steps against Russia despite calls from many European countries and some Republicans on Capitol Hill, including South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham.
Earlier in the day, flanked by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump had said it had been “big mistake” to exclude Russia from G7 summits in his first comments in Kananaskis.
Trump has long said he would like to see the G7 return to a G8 format. Russia was excluded following its annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“This was a big mistake. You wouldn’t have that war,” Trump said, referring to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which started in 2022. “[Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else because he was insulted when he got thrown out of the G8.”
The US president also said it was “not a bad idea” to have China as part of the G7. China and Russia are part of the G20, a wider multilateral group of the world’s largest economies.
Trump’s remarks came as Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, was invited to join the group on Tuesday for a special session on the conflict with Russia.
Managing Trump has been an unofficial theme for the G7 leaders, who fear the US president’s often inconsistent positions on matters of diplomacy and trade make reaching consensus challenging.
Trump’s threat to make Canada the 51st state of the US has added a personal edge for Carney, who is hosting the summit. In his own opening remarks, Carney had noted the “G7 is nothing without US leadership”.
On Sunday evening in Kananaskis, Carney and Starmer had drinks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Aides insisted the unofficial meeting over wine was spontaneous, but observers viewed it as a last-minute co-ordination session over handling Trump during the summit.
The US and Canada have been trying to reach a settlement to the trade disputes that have flared after Trump imposed steep tariffs on Canadian metal exports. Carney’s office later said they had “agreed to pursue negotiations toward a deal within the coming 30 days”.
Meanwhile, Trump on Monday signed an executive order to implement the US-UK trade agreement unveiled last month, a significant win for Starmer that will lower tariffs on UK car exports and remove levies on aerospace parts. Outstanding issues over UK steel exports remain.
Trump also met Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, who said they had “instructed the teams to accelerate their work to strike a good and fair [trade] deal”.
“Let’s get it done,” von der Leyen added. The meeting was their first bilateral discussion since Trump’s inauguration. He has threatened the EU with 50 per cent tariffs if they do not strike a deal by July 9.
Trump left the summit in Canada on Monday night, one day early, in to manage Washington’s response to the war between Israel and Iran.
“It’s painful for both parties, but I’d say Iran is not winning this war,” Trump said. “They should talk immediately, before it’s too late.”
The US president had been expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
The leaders at the G7 summit issued a joint statement late on Monday urging “resolution” of the conflict as well as a broader de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza”.
The consensus came following a day of intense diplomacy in which Trump had initially resisted signing up to the text and issued increasingly hawkish statements, including a warning to evacuate Tehran.
Asked whether the US had provided intelligence support for Israel, Trump said Washington “had always supported Israel”. He added: “Israel is doing very well right now”.
Additional reporting from Henry Foy in Brussels
