US President Donald Trump threatens 'very severe' tariffs if Russia fails to agree Ukraine ceasefire in 50 days
The US President had previously expressed displeasure with the level of military support being provided to Ukraine, even going so far as to shout down his counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy for apparently failing to show he was "grateful".
Those comments, and the public dressing down, sparked panic among some European leaders, who feared Ukraine could soon be shorn of vital support and subsequently fall to Russian invaders.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin's repeated refusal to play along with US-led peace efforts appears to have shifted President Trump's view.
In a surprise announcement on Monday, local time, the US President used a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to declare he was "very unhappy" with the Kremlin before dealing a double blow to President Putin's aspirations of conquest.
"We're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO," President Trump told reporters, adding "they will be paying for them".
Those weapons will include advanced Patriot missile systems, which Ukraine has been desperately calling for to fight back against increasing swarms of Russian drones and other aerial bombardments.
"We're going to have some come very soon, within days," the US President said.
"A couple of the countries that have Patriots are going to swap over and will replace the Patriots with the ones they have."
Mr Rutte, speaking after the US President, described the announcement as "really big" and sought to play into the idea NATO and Europe were "stepping up" to meet Trump administration demands for greater burden sharing on defence.
In addition to providing weaponry, President Trump also moved to threaten Russia with "very severe" tariffs should the Kremlin continue to rebuff attempts to negotiate a peace agreement.
"We're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, it's very simple," the President said.
The new tariffs would be set at "100 per cent", he added, with a White House official later clarifying President Trump had been referring both to tariffs on Russian exports as well as so-called secondary sanctions, which target third countries that buy a country's exports.
If imposed the secondary sanctions would likely have a far more severe impact on Russia's economy than any measures previously imposed by the international community.
Under existing sanctions, Russia has still been able to sell oil, a key export, to nations including China and India for hundreds of billions of dollars.
However, both countries would pay a significant penalty should the US impose secondary sanctions, robbing the Kremlin of vital funds needed to keep its economy running.
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In Washington, a White House official said Trump's intention was to impose "100 per cent tariffs on Russia" and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal was not struck in 50 days. China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world's second-largest exporter of oil Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on Monday, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. "The US president's statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington." Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times in 2025, has yet to comment publicly on Trump's remarks. But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back. Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump's "theatrical ultimatum", while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless. Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a "peacemaker" president, said he wanted to see the end of the war - on which he said the United States had spent $US350 billion ($A534 billion) - but that he had been "disappointed" by Putin. Trump specifically expressed frustration that Putin's "talk" about peace was often followed by Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine. "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy," Trump said of Putin, a reference to former US President Joe Biden calling the Russian leader "a killer" in a 2021 interview. The Financial Times reported that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could hit Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons. Trump told the BBC that he was "not done" with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards. Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war. In Moscow, state television broadcasts led with advances by Russian troops in Ukraine, of which Russian forces control just under a fifth, and an attack on Russia by Ukrainian drones that injured 18 people. Kommersant, one of Russia's most respected newspapers, invoked William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in its front page headline to suggest betrayal: "Et tu, Trump - the main peacekeeper of Ukrainian conflict joined the 'party of war". Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace - but on his terms - and there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down. In Washington, a White House official said Trump's intention was to impose "100 per cent tariffs on Russia" and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal was not struck in 50 days. China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world's second-largest exporter of oil Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on Monday, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. "The US president's statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington." Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times in 2025, has yet to comment publicly on Trump's remarks. But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back. Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump's "theatrical ultimatum", while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless. Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a "peacemaker" president, said he wanted to see the end of the war - on which he said the United States had spent $US350 billion ($A534 billion) - but that he had been "disappointed" by Putin. Trump specifically expressed frustration that Putin's "talk" about peace was often followed by Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine. "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy," Trump said of Putin, a reference to former US President Joe Biden calling the Russian leader "a killer" in a 2021 interview. The Financial Times reported that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could hit Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons. Trump told the BBC that he was "not done" with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards. Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war. In Moscow, state television broadcasts led with advances by Russian troops in Ukraine, of which Russian forces control just under a fifth, and an attack on Russia by Ukrainian drones that injured 18 people. Kommersant, one of Russia's most respected newspapers, invoked William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in its front page headline to suggest betrayal: "Et tu, Trump - the main peacekeeper of Ukrainian conflict joined the 'party of war". Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace - but on his terms - and there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down. In Washington, a White House official said Trump's intention was to impose "100 per cent tariffs on Russia" and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal was not struck in 50 days. China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world's second-largest exporter of oil Trump, sitting beside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, on Monday, announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened "biting" secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. "The US president's statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. "We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington." Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times in 2025, has yet to comment publicly on Trump's remarks. But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back. Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia's Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump's "theatrical ultimatum", while a senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless. Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a "peacemaker" president, said he wanted to see the end of the war - on which he said the United States had spent $US350 billion ($A534 billion) - but that he had been "disappointed" by Putin. Trump specifically expressed frustration that Putin's "talk" about peace was often followed by Russian strikes on major Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine. "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy," Trump said of Putin, a reference to former US President Joe Biden calling the Russian leader "a killer" in a 2021 interview. The Financial Times reported that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether he could hit Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons. Trump told the BBC that he was "not done" with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards. Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces. The United States says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war. In Moscow, state television broadcasts led with advances by Russian troops in Ukraine, of which Russian forces control just under a fifth, and an attack on Russia by Ukrainian drones that injured 18 people. Kommersant, one of Russia's most respected newspapers, invoked William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in its front page headline to suggest betrayal: "Et tu, Trump - the main peacekeeper of Ukrainian conflict joined the 'party of war". Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace - but on his terms - and there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down. In Washington, a White House official said Trump's intention was to impose "100 per cent tariffs on Russia" and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy oil from Russia if a peace deal was not struck in 50 days. China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world's second-largest exporter of oil
