Trump Renews Backing of Ukraine with Missiles, Russia Threats

Angela Stent, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, breaks down the potential impact of Trump's threat of financial penalties on Russia if Putin does not agree to a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.

US President Donald Trump threatened to impose stiff financial penalties on Russia if it does not end hostilities with Ukraine even as he pledged fresh weapons supplies for Kyiv.

“We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%,” Trump said Monday during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House.

Trump said the levies would come in the form of “secondary tariffs,” without providing details. The US president has used the term in the past to describe duties imposed on countries for trading with American adversaries.

Asked later if Trump meant to refer to the more widely known tool “secondary sanctions,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters that sanctions and tariffs were “both tools in his toolbox” and that “you can do either one.” A White House official said Russia could face both measures if it fails to sign a ceasefire deal by early September.

Matt Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, said the planned action effectively represents secondary sanctions on countries buying oil from Russia. “It’s about tariffs on countries like India and China that are buying their oil,” he told reporters. “And it really is going to, I think, dramatically impact the Russian economy.”

The threats echo punishment spelled out in a bipartisan bill in Congress that would impose 500% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas. Trump also vowed earlier this year to tariff imports from countries that buy Venezuelan oil.

Trump did not elaborate on the powers he would use to impose secondary tariffs. He said he wasn’t sure “we need” Congress to act in order to move forward but said the legislation “could be very useful.”

The comments mark the latest signal of Trump’s growing impatience with Moscow’s war in Ukraine, which has dragged on since 2022. But the arrangement also risks Moscow continuing its barrage on the battlefield before it returns to talks.

Trump said the US was sending a “top-of-the-line weapons” package that includes Patriot air defense batteries. The president said that NATO member states will pay for the weapons to be sent to Ukraine.

“We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it,” Trump said. “They’re going to be paying for it.”

Much of what Kyiv will receive will depend on Europe’s ability and willingness to make the purchases. Ukraine needs air defense systems and drone interceptors as well as a constant supply of artillery shells and missiles as Moscow unleashes record air strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Monday in a post on X that he had spoken with Trump, who briefed him on his discussions with Rutte.

“We discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions. We are ready to work as productively as possible to achieve peace,” Zelenskiy said. “We agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future as well.”

Trump hailed Monday’s announcement as a major shift in course as he looks to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the hostilities. But the details of the decision also reflect Trump’s priorities: It won’t cost the US anything and Trump is not dedicating any new US funding to Ukraine, at least for now.

“I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Trump said.

The White House didn’t immediately explain how Trump envisioned the secondary tariff program working. Oil fell after Trump made his threat, with West Texas Intermediate down 2.1% to settle below $67 a barrel.

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