Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded President Donald Trump’s decision to shorten Russia’s deadline to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine — but says the move should have come much sooner, The Hill reported.
“Too many innocent lives are at stake for President Trump to let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin continue playing him for time. This shorter deadline is a positive step but long overdue,” Shaheen said in a statement Monday.
Trump announced that he will revise the timeline he originally set for Putin to halt hostilities in Ukraine. Trump now expects a ceasefire agreement “about 10 or 12 days from today,” advancing the previous 50-day deadline by several weeks.
“We just don’t see any progress being made,” Trump said during a joint appearance with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “I’m going to reduce that [by] 50 days. I gave him a lesser number because I think I already know the answer what’s going to happen.”
Shaheen, who has long pressed for a tougher U.S. response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, said the White House must not stop at words.
“The president needs to match his words with real action and not let Putin cross yet another red line,” she said.
Trump’s original deadline, announced July 14, set a 50-day window for Russia to cease fighting or face expanded sanctions and tariffs. The revised timeline could bring new pressure on Moscow as early as the first week of August.
Citing deadly Russian attacks on civilian targets, including in Kyiv, Trump expressed frustration with the lack of progress.
“We thought we had that settled numerous times, and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city like Kyiv and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever,” he said. “You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say that’s not the way to do it. So we’ll see what happens with that.”
Shaheen called on Congress to do its part by advancing new bipartisan sanctions legislation aimed at pressuring the Kremlin and bolstering Ukraine’s defenses.
“At the same time, we must continue to press forward in Congress on bipartisan legislation to impose punishing sanctions on the Kremlin and ensure Ukraine has the support it needs to finally bring Putin to the negotiating table,” she said.
Meanwhile, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev issued a warning about the potential consequences of Trump’s strategy, accusing him of escalating tensions.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his [Trump’s] own country,” Medvedev wrote on X.
Information from Thomson/Reuters was used in this story.
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