US President Donald Trump on Monday threatened Russia with “100 per cent” secondary tariffs if it fails to reach a deal on ending the Ukraine war within 50 days. Mr Trump, speaking alongside Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, said he was “disappointed” with President Vladimir Putin as the war in Ukraine drags on.
“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 and that's the way it is,” Mr Trump said. He added: “I use trade for a lot of things. But it's great for settling wars.”
Flanked by his Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio and special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, he called Mr Putin "tough".
"I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy," he said, adding that he had "fooled" his predecessors.
The US President has taken a harder line on Russia in recent weeks as it has pounded Ukrainian cities. In April, Mr Trump urged Mr Putin to “STOP!” launching deadly barrages on Kyiv.
The following month, he said in a social media post that the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” In response to a question from The National, Mr Trump said that “I felt that we had a deal about four times, and here we are still talking about it”.
Mr Rutte said Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada have said they want to participate in the effort and that Ukraine will soon receive "massive" amounts of military equipment, including air defence weapons, missiles and ammunition.
“If I was Vladimir Putin today, and you are speaking about what you were planning to do in 50 days ... I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment," he said. "But when I'm Ukraine, I think this is really great news for them."
The Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022, when Russian forces invaded Ukrainian territory. The President also told reporters that the US would be building weapons that would be sent to European Nato countries. These systems would replenish supplies that had been sent to Ukraine from Europe. European countries would pay for the systems, Mr Trump emphasised.
“We make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything – the European nations know that, and we've made a deal today,” he said. “Billions of dollars' worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States … and that's going to be quickly distributed to Ukraine.”
The decision marks a significant departure from Mr Trump's handling of Russia since he retook office in January. The US has not placed any new sanctions on Russia related to the war in Ukraine in that time.
The US placed thousands of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine under former president Joe Biden, in line with the UK, the EU, Australia, Canada and Japan. The US sanctioned a large number of Russian sectors including its energy industry and its banking system, with the latter's access to the international financial system severely restricted.
The Russian energy giant Gazprom was among the hardest hit by the sanctions. It recorded a net loss of $12.89 billion in 2024 under Russian accounting standards, Reuters reported in March, quoting the Russian news agency Interfax.
Russia's economy initially shrunk by 2.1 per cent in the first year of the war, according to the International Monetary Fund. The fund projects that the Russian economy will grow by 1.5 per cent this year before slowing to a 0.9 per cent pace in 2026.
An analysis from the Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) noted that this growth resulted from Russia restructuring its economy around its military. Inflation in the country has also surged, leading Russia's central bank to raise interest rates as high as 21 per cent earlier this year before reducing rates to 20 per cent last month.
Russia's deputy prime minister Alexander Novak last month said Russia's economy was not in a state of crisis.
Kyle Fitzgerald contributed to this report
