The latest moves mark a shift in strategy from the Republican president, who had pledged to quickly resolve the conflict initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin when Ukraine was invaded three years ago. Initially, Trump criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for what he deemed an unwillingness to compromise, but his frustration has lately been more directed at Putin.

“My discussions with him are always very cordial, and then the missiles go off at night,” Trump remarked. He noted with exasperation that “it just keeps going on and on and on.”

Trump stated he would enforce “severe tariffs” unless a peace agreement was reached within 50 days. Although details on their implementation were sparse, he described them as secondary tariffs, designed to target Russia’s trading partners in a bid to isolate Moscow economically.

In addition, Trump said European allies would buy “billions and billions” of dollars of US 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 US stockpiles were running low.

Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the UK 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 US.

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 Lieutenant General 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 US 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 1343 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 1000km front line.

Trump confirmed the US is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defence missiles and that the European Union will pay the US 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 US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

‘Weapons flowing at a record level’

A top ally of Trump, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict was 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 US 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 US 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.”

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 December 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 6 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 US and China, the world’s two largest economies.