Trump gives Russia 50 days to make Ukraine deal or face sanctions
Rutte said Ukraine would get 'massive numbers' of weapons under the deal, which is aimed at placating Trump's long-held complaints that the US is paying too much to aid Ukraine.
However, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Trump's deadline, while 'very positive', was too far into the future.
'Fifty days is a very long time if we see that they are killing innocent civilians every day,' Kallas said.
'Tough guy'
Trump launched a bid at rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term in January, as he sought to honour his election campaign promise to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
His pivot towards Putin sparked fears in Kyiv that he was about to sell out Ukraine, especially after he and his team berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February.
But Trump has indicated he is increasingly frustrated with Putin in recent weeks as the Russian leader, instead of halting his invasion, stepped up attacks to record levels.
The US leader gave an intriguing personal insight into how First Lady Melania Trump had helped change his thinking about Putin, a man for whom he formerly expressed admiration.
'I go home, I tell the First Lady, 'you know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation',' Trump said. 'And she said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit'.'
He added of Putin: 'I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy.'
Trump said he had believed they had sealed a deal with Putin four times, only for them to fall through.
The US President had last week teased that he would make a 'major statement' on Russia on Monday.
Washington has also U-turned from an announcement earlier this month that it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv, announcing on Sunday that it would send vital Patriot air defence systems.
Better late than never
Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, meanwhile, arrived in Kyiv to meet Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader hailed the 'productive meeting' and said he was 'grateful' to Trump for his support.
One Ukrainian soldier deployed in the war-scarred east of the country, who identified himself by his call sign Grizzly, welcomed Trump's promise of fresh air defence systems.
'Better late than never,' the 29-year-old told AFP.
Russian forces, meanwhile, said on Monday they had captured new territory in eastern Ukraine with the seizure of two villages, one in the Donetsk region and another in the Zaporizhzhia region.
Its forces also killed at least three civilians in the eastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions on Monday, regional Ukrainian officials announced.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy also proposed a major political shake-up, recommending economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko take over as the country's new Prime Minister.
Svyrydenko said on social media that Ukraine was facing a 'crucial time'.
-Agence France-Presse
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By Aaron Blake , CNN Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource Analysis: It remains to be seen just how lasting and severe President Donald Trump's turn against Vladimir Putin will be. Trump has criticised the Russian president in unprecedented terms in recent days and signalled he'll send vital weapons to Ukraine . But he's also given Putin plenty more time - 50 days - before really dropping the hammer with economic punishment. To the extent this shift is genuine, though, it's coming with a healthy dose of rewriting history. Repeatedly this week, Trump has suggested he never really trusted Putin. "He's fooled a lot of people," Trump said on Monday at the White House, adding: "He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn't fool me." The president echoed the point in a new interview with the BBC . Asked whether he trusted Putin, he reportedly paused for a bit. 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Ultimately, Trump was asked in that meeting what happens if Putin violates the terms of a ceasefire, and he again blanched at the suggestion. "'What if' anything?" Trump said. "What if a bomb drops on your head right now, OK? What if they break it? I don't know. They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn't respect him. They didn't respect Obama. They respect me." Four-and-a-half months later, Trump says Putin tells him very nice things during their phone calls but doesn't back that up with actions. "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, and we had a wonderful conversation,' " Trump said on Monday. "She said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit.' " And this is a familiar tale. Trump has often vouched for adversarial foreign strongmen who have very different agendas, and sometimes that's blown up in his face. Early in 2020, Trump repeatedly vouched for China and President Xi Jinping's control over the Covid outbreak. He dismissed the idea that China was covering up the spread and praised its transparency, reportedly rejecting the idea that he should apply more pressure. Trump made these comments despite China's history of covering up such events and internal administration concerns that it was happening again. Soon, when the outbreak took hold in the United States, Trump would turn to blaming China for it. The White House accused China of the same cover-up Trump had cast doubt upon. Vladimir Putin. Photo: AFP / Pool / Maxim Shemetov Trump has also repeatedly defended Putin in the past, particularly his denials of Russian interference in the 2016 US election. He has even sided with Putin over his own intelligence community. During a press conference with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018, Trump said he didn't "see any reason why" Russia would have interfered . "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today," Trump said. He later claimed he had misspoken and that he meant to say he didn't see any reason why Russia wouldn't have done this. But the president has gone on to repeatedly cast doubt on the idea that Russia interfered, even as a bipartisan Senate investigation backed up the intelligence community's findings. Another politician might look at all this and ask themselves whether they invested too much faith in Xi and Putin. But Trump instead suggests that it's other American presidents who have been the dupes. If you look closely, though, you can see Trump tacitly acknowledging his own miscalculation. He has repeatedly pointed to how Putin says nice things but then doesn't stand by them. Even in his anecdote about the first lady, Trump cast himself as seemingly too focused on the things Putin says to him rather than actions on the ground. It's normal in diplomacy to say nice things about your counterparts, even if you don't believe them. But usually you do that a lot more with allies than adversaries. On some level, you're lending your credibility and legitimacy to someone who might not reward it. In Putin's case, there was plenty of reason to believe that might ultimately be the case. And here we are. - CNN
