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DONALD TRUMP HAS warned Russia that he will impose “very severe” tariffs against Moscow’s remaining trade partners if it doesn’t resolve its war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The US President was speaking alongside Nato General Secretary Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, where he announced an agreement with Nato to send “top-of-the-line weapons” to Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump said he wanted to see the war in Ukraine end and that he was “very disappointed” in Russian President Vladimir Putin that the conflict was still ongoing.
“I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” he said.
“Based on that, we’re going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple. They’ll be at 100%, and that’s the way it is,” he said, adding: “I hope we don’t have to do it.”
He did not provide specifics on how the tariffs would be implemented. However, secondary tariffs would mean hitting countries who trade with Russia with financial sanctions.
Trump also confirmed that the US will send weapons to Ukraine under a deal with Nato. The move is a U-turn from a decision earlier this month to pause arm deliveries to Kyiv.
Nato’s Mark Rutte said Ukraine will get a huge supply of weapons to boost its war effort against Russia under the new arms supply deal struck with the US.
“It will mean that Ukraine gets its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition,” he told reporters.
Trump said the supply amounted to “billions of dollars” worth of munitions and weapons, including Patriot anti-missile systems.
Trump has increasingly voiced irritation at Putin and the inability to resolve the now three-year-old war, which Trump promised he would promptly end as he campaigned to return to the White House.
He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly stressed that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.
But the latest announcement suggests that he is running out of patience with the Russian leader, who Ukraine has accused of deliberately stalling any potential ceasefire and having no interest in peace.
Asked today how he told Putin about the potential secondary tariffs, Trump said he speaks to the Russian president “a lot”.
“My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say ‘Wasn’t that a lovely conversation?’, and then the missiles go off that night,” he said, adding that “after that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn’t mean anything”.
I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy. It’s been proven over the years. He’s fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, he didn’t fool me.
“But what I do say is that at a certain point, you know, ultimately, talk doesn’t talk. It’s got to be action. It’s got to be results, and I hope he does it. It’s potentially such a great country to be wasting too many people on this, and the money. Look at what’s happened to his economy.”
He said he dealt with Putin from the “beginning”, and that Ukraine was “the apple of his eye”, but that the invasion “wasn’t going to happen” while he was US president.
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv today, as anticipation grew over a possible shift in the Trump administration’s policy on the three-year war.
Zelensky said he and Keith Kellogg had “a productive conversation” about strengthening Ukrainian air defences, joint arms production and purchasing US weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin.
“We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its … ambitions are stopped by force,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Rutte also planned to hold talks with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as members of Congress.
With reporting from Press Association
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