WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump told Russia on Monday (Jul 14) to end its Ukraine war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kyiv via NATO.
Trump said he was “very, very unhappy” with President Vladimir Putin, underlining his insistence that his patience had finally snapped with the Russian leader’s refusal to end his three-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The Republican added that they would be “secondary tariffs” that target Russia’s remaining trade partners – seeking to cripple Moscow’s ability to survive already sweeping Western sanctions.
Trump and Rutte also unveiled a deal under which the NATO military alliance would buy billions of dollars of arms from the US, including Patriot anti-missile batteries, and then send them to Ukraine.
“This is really big,” said Rutte, as he touted a deal aimed at easing Trump’s long-held complaints that the US is paying more than European and NATO allies to aid Ukraine.
Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain were among the buyers helping Ukraine, added the NATO chief.
“If I was Vladimir Putin today and heard you speaking … I would reconsider that I should take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously,” said Rutte.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced he had spoken with Trump and was “grateful” for the arms deal.
“VERY LONG TIME”
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Berlin would play a “decisive role” in the new weapons plan.
But European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Trump’s sanctions deadline was too far into the future. “Fifty days is a very long time if we see that they are killing innocent civilians every day,” she said.
Trump attempted a rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term, in a bid to honour his election campaign pledge 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 Trump and his team berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Feb 28.
Source: AFP/fs