President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, has said that he could hit Russia financially if President Vladimir Putin refused to accept a peace deal to halt the war with Ukraine.

This is following a call to the US leader by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to take strong steps if Putin failed to support a 30-day ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and the US.

The 30-day ceasefire was part of the deal reached by US and Ukrainian delegations at a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The United States, Ukraine and Europe are waiting for Russia’s response to the ceasefire proposal.

President Trump is expected to send his men to Russia to hold talks with Putin by the end of the week.

The Kremlin has not publicly said whether or not it supports an immediate ceasefire.

Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he had received “positive messages” regarding the ceasefire, but “a positive message means nothing”.

The White House later said that Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, would be in Moscow later this week.

“It’s up to Russia now,” Trump said from the White House. “Our people are going to Russia right now as we speak. And hopefully we can get a ceasefire from Russia.”

Trump added that he could “do things financially that would be very bad for Russia”.

He added, however: “I don’t want to do that, because I want to get peace.”

He added, “We haven’t spoken to him yet with substance, because we just found out. We’re going to know very soon. I’ve gotten some positive messages, but a positive message means nothing.”

“This is a very serious situation. This is a situation that could lead to world war three,” when asked whether he believed the Russian leader would hold to a ceasefire.

War: What I’ll do to Russia if Putin rejects ceasefire deal with Ukraine – Trump