United States President Donald Trump said on Monday (Mar 31) that he wants to see Russian President Vladimir Putin "make a deal" to end the ongoing war in Ukraine. While speaking to reporters inside the Oval Office, Trump reiterated that he would impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil, if needed. 

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"I want to see him make a deal, so that we stop Russian soldiers and Ukrainian soldiers and other people from being killed," Trump said, 

"I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. I don't want to go secondary tariffs on his oil. But I think, you know, it's something I would do if I thought he wasn't doing the job. I did it with Venezuela," he added. 

In his recent interview with NBC News, Trump said that if Russia and the US were unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and he thinks it was Russia's fault, he would put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia. 

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What did Kremlin say 

The Kremlin has responded to Trump's recent remarks about being "very angry" and "pissed off" with the Russian president when he talked about Putin's stance on putting Ukraine under a "temporary administration". 

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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov addressed the issue on Monday as he said that some of the wordings were paraphrased rather than direct quotes. He said that "several various statements" were made. Peskov said that Moscow continues working with Washington on rebuilding bilateral ties as well as peace in Ukraine. 

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During a regular conference call, Peskov said, "We continue to work with the American side, first of all, on building our bilateral relations, which suffered enormous damage during the previous administration." 

"We are also working on implementing some ideas related to the Ukrainian settlement. The work is underway, so far there are no specifics that we would have to inform you about," he added. 

Putin was still open to speaking to Trump, he also said, further adding that there was no phone call scheduled between the two leaders, but that one could be "organised promptly". 

In March, Putin rejected a US proposal of an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine, upping his rhetoric on Moscow wanting to install new leadership in Ukraine. 

Trump also criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and expressed his frustration with Kyiv regarding the rare earth minerals deal. 

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What does the EU want? 

Recently, the European foreign ministers have slammed Russia for delaying a ceasefire in Ukraine. Peskov said it would be "a drawn-out process". 

Kaja Kallas, who is the European Union's foreign policy chief, said on Monday: "Russia is playing games and not really wanting peace. So our question is, how can we put more pressure on Russia." 

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Kallas was attending an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Madrid along with ministers from other EU nations, including Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who said that there should be some kind of deadline for Russia to accept a ceasefire deal. 

French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot also chimed in as he said that Russia owed a clear response to the US on whether it wants to go on a peace path at all. 

(With inputs from agencies)