He made the comments during an interview with CNBC.“If the price of energy goes down low enough, Putin will stop killing people. That will be nice, even if his own people are dying in Ukraine. But Putin will stop killing people,” the American leader said.Donald Trump believes that Vladimir Putin would be forced to end his war if oil prices dropped by another $10 per barrel. "If energy is down another 10 dollars a barrel, he will have no choice, because his economy stinks," the president told CNBC.The remarks follow a recent deterioration in relations between Moscow and Washington, which had remained relatively cordial at the beginning of Trump’s second term despite the ongoing war.Russia, one of the world’s leading oil exporters, has relied heavily on oil revenues to finance its war effort in Ukraine since launching the invasion in 2022. While Ukraine’s Western allies have imposed sanctions and restrictions to curb those earnings, nations such as India and China have continued purchasing discounted Russian crude.Trump’s deadline for PutinOn July 28, Donald Trump said he was disappointed in Vladimir Putin and intended to shorten the original 50-day deadline he had given for a peace deal with Ukraine.That same day, Dmitry Medvedev threatened war with the United States in response to Trump reducing the timeline to 10–12 days for Putin to reach a peace agreement.On July 29, the U.S. president confirmed he had shortened the deadline for the Russian leader to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine to just 10 days.On July 31, Trump responded to Medvedev's threats, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed Medvedev as an irrelevant player in Russian politics.