It remains to be seen just how lasting and severe President Donald Trump’s turn against Vladimir Putin will be. Trump has criticized the Russian president in unprecedented terms in recent days and signaled he’ll send vital weapons to Ukraine.

“Putin will not negotiate as a loser,” one of his longtime associates tells TIME by phone from Moscow. “He knows that winners don’t get punished, and if he wins, all of this” — the sanctions, the tariffs — “will go away.”

President Vladimir Putin believes Russia's economy and its military are strong enough to weather any additional Western measures, sources said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacrificed an estimated 1 million of his soldiers, killed and wounded, in a three-year campaign to crush Ukraine. Now President Donald Trump is betting that his go-to economic weapon — tariffs — can succeed where Ukrainian drones and rockets haven't,

Pres. Trump has denied reports that he asked Pres. Zelenskyy to strike deeper into Russia, but said he is increasingly "disappointed" with Putin's ongoing heavy bombing of Ukraine.

Trump's threat against Russia runs parallel to a Senate-led effort to pass crippling sanctions on countries that buy Russian energy.

Trump tells the that he trusts "almost no-one" in a wide-ranging phone call on the war in Ukraine, Nato and the UK.

The contradictory stories come as Trump, finally, announces new sanctions to counter Russia and more military aid to Ukraine.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not ready for compromises” to end his brutal war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Post in an exclusive interview on Wednesday — but President Trump has the power to bring him to his knees by speeding up tough sanctions that could cause a “social explosion” in Russia.