Trump threatens Russia with tariffs and boosts U.S. weapons for Ukraine

Donald Trump speaks on measures the U.S. will take against Russia during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on sending missiles to Ukraine.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending the war.

The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the Republican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump once focused his criticism on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he described as unwilling to compromise, but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin.

“My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night,” Trump said. He complained that “it just keeps going on and on and on.”

Trump said he would implement “severe tariffs” unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia’s trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.

In addition, Trump said European allies would buy “billions and billions” of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country’s supplies of weapons. He made the announcement in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Included in the plan are Patriot air defence systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles.

Doubts were recently raised about Trump’s commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S. stockpiles were running low.

Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. He said “speed is of the essence here,” and he suggested that some weapons would be rushed to Ukraine and later replaced with purchases from the U.S.

Trump exasperated with Putin

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and he repeatedly asserted that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. He also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a “dictator without elections.”

But Russia’s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump’s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”.

While Rutte was in Washington, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired U.S. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said he had “a productive conversation” with Kellogg about strengthening Ukrainian air defences, joint arms production and purchasing U.S. 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.

Talks on sending Patriot missiles

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine’s air defences are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said.

At the same time, Russia’s bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) front line.

Trump confirmed the U.S. is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defence missiles and that the European Union will pay the U.S. for the “various pieces of very sophisticated” weaponry.

A senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, said Trump’s plan had “only one beneficiary -- the US military-industrial complex.”

Germany has offered to finance two Patriot systems, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Monday in Berlin. The country has already given three of its own Patriot systems to Ukraine.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius was traveling to Washington on Monday to meet with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

‘Weapons flowing at a record level’

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Although Trump had previously dismissed the effort as a waste of U.S. taxpayer money, Graham told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level.”

“One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump,” he said. “And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there’s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table.”

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for international investment who took part in talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in February, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

“Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure,” Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. “This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means.”

Economic pressure

Although Trump proposed targeting Russia with new tariffs, he expressed doubts about bipartisan legislation to punish the country even further.

“I’m not sure we need it,” he said. “It could be very useful. We’ll have to see.”

The legislation increases sanctions and places 500 per cent tariffs on products imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas and other exports. Trump on Monday proposed unilaterally implementing 100 per cent tariffs.

“I use trade for a lot of things,” he said. “But it’s great for settling wars.”

Since Dec. 5, 2022, when the European Union banned Russian oil, China has bought 47 per cent of Russia’s crude oil exports, followed by India at 38 per cent. Turkey and the EU have each accounted for six per cent, according to the Centre for Research and Clean Air, a Finnish nonprofit that tracks the energy industry.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow in China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, doubted that tariffs would change the course of the war.

“Oil is fungible, and Russia has developed a nimble shadow fleet,” he said. “So enforcement would be a challenge.”

However, the tariffs could still have a dramatic effect, depending on how they’re implemented.

Adding a 100 per cent tariff on China, on top of import taxes already in place, would essentially halt trade between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies.

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By Chris Megerian And Illia Novikov

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Paul Wiseman in Washington and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.