President Donald Trump may have expected a Russian shudder of fear to greet his threat of “very severe tariffs” on the country if it didn’t agree a ceasefire in Ukraine.

European Union officials have drawn up plans to impose levies on American imports, but questions abound about whether they would go through with them.

The war between Russia and Ukraine has been unrelenting over the last 24 hours as Ukraine says Russia launched around 5,500 attacks. Now, President Donald Trump is giving President Vladimir Putin 50 days to back down or face secondary tariffs.