US president Donald Trump has pledged to supply Ukraine with advanced weapons via Nato and to impose “very severe” sanctions on Russia if it fails to agree a deal to end its invasion within 50 days.
Mr Trump said he was “very, very unhappy” with Moscow’s refusal to make peace with Kyiv and with repeated conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin that were “very pleasant – and then the missiles go off at night”.
“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal within 50 days,” Mr Trump said in the White House on Monday alongside visiting Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
Presidential aides explained later that the tariffs would be imposed on Russia and countries that buy its oil exports – a major source of Kremlin revenue.
“I hope we don’t get to the point where we do (impose tariffs) but I’ve been hearing so much talk,” Mr Trump added. “It’s all talk, and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people. It’s got to stop.”
Russia has launched its heaviest drone strikes of the three-year, full-scale war on Ukraine in recent weeks, coinciding with a US decision to halt – and then resume – deliveries of some vital equipment, including air defence ammunition.
“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them,” Mr Trump said of fellow Nato members in Europe.
“This is billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States, going to Nato, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield,” he added, claiming that additional Patriot air defence systems would arrive in Ukraine “very soon”.
Mr Trump again blamed his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for allowing Russia to launch its all-out invasion of pro-western Ukraine in February 2022. He sought to thwart potential criticism from some supporters who wanted him to end military aid to Ukraine by framing the new deal as profitable business for the US.
“We make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything, the European nations know that ... and they’re going to be paying for them.”
Mr Rutte said the agreement would allow Ukraine to receive “really massive numbers of military equipment”. He urged Mr Putin to seek a negotiated peace.
“So if I was Vladimir Putin today, and you’re speaking about what you were planning to do in 50 days ... I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment,” he said.
Mr Trump returned to power this year claiming to be able to stop Europe’s biggest war since 1945 in one day. He said on Monday that he speaks to Mr Putin “a lot” and thought a peace deal was close on several occasions.
“I’d get home, I’d say, ‘First Lady, I had the most wonderful talk with Vladimir, I think we’re finished’. And then I’ll turn on the television or she’ll say to me one time, ‘Well, that’s strange, because they just bombed a nursing home’,” Mr Trump said.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin to Mr Trump’s remarks, but earlier on Monday, Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian finance official prominent in talks between Moscow and Washington, said that “constructive dialogue between Russia and the US will always achieve more than the tired, destructive language of pressure”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy met US envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, for what he called a “productive conversation” on peace efforts, the supply and joint production of weapons and the need for additional sanctions on Russia.
