KYIV/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine on Monday, and threatened to hit buyers of Russian exports with sanctions unless Russia agrees a peace deal in 50 days, a major shift in policy brought on by disappointment with Moscow.
Sitting side-by-side with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that he was disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin. Billions of dollars in weapons would be distributed to Ukraine, he said.
"We're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO," Trump said, adding that Washington's NATO allies would pay for the weapons.
The weapons would include Patriot air defence missiles which Ukraine has urgently sought to defend its cities from Russian air strikes.
"It's a full complement with the batteries," Trump said when asked whether he would send Patriot missiles specifically.
"We're going to have some come very soon, within days... a couple of the countries that have Patriots are going to swap over and will replace the Patriots with the ones they have."
"We're going to be doing secondary tariffs. If we don't have a deal in 50 days, it's very simple, and they'll be at 100 per cent," Trump said.
Trump's moves underline his growing disenchantment with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress in U.S.-led efforts to secure a ceasefire in Russia's more than three-year-old war in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky Zelenskiy, who has been seeking air defence systems to fend off Russian airstrikes, said he had discussed "the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer" at talks with Trump's special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
"This includes strengthening Ukraine's air defence, joint production and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe," Zelenskiy wrote on X after their talks in Kyiv.
A White House official said Trump was referring to 100 per cent tariffs on Russian exports as well as so-called secondary sanctions, which target third countries that buy a country's exports.
Such secondary sanctions are widely seen as likely to have a far more severe impact on Russia's economy than measures that have been imposed previously, which have allowed Russia to continue selling oil to buyers such as China and India, earning hundreds of billions of dollars.
Kellogg's visit — more than three years into the Kremlin's attack — comes as Russian forces killed three civilians in eastern Ukraine and launched dozens of long-range drones at targets across the country. The envoy arrived in Kyiv just one day after US President Donald Trump announced new Patriot air defence systems supplies to Ukraine, in a U-turn that has underscored concerns in Kyiv over the consistency of American support. — Agencies
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