Trump Threatens 'Very Severe Tariffs' on Russia, NATO Promises 'Massive Numbers' of Weapons to Ukraine

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose \"very steep tariffs\" on countries supporting Russia, if Moscow doesn't resolve its war in Ukraine within 50 days. Calling them secondary tariffs, Trump said they will be 100 per cent.

\"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 percent, and that's the way it is,\" Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump's remarks came as he met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House. He said the US makes the best equipment, the best missiles and \"the best everything\", and that they will be sending the weapons to Nato, and adds that \"they will be paying for them\".

When asked about calls for a 500 per cent tariff on Russia, Trump said the number \"does not matter after a certain point and that 100 per cent levies will serve the purpose.\"

The US president said he felt he had a deal with Russia on the Ukraine war \"about four times, and here we are still talking\".

\"I thought we should have had a deal done a long time ago, but it just keeps going on and on an on,\" he remarked, as he noted that he was \"disappointed\" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Meanwhile, Rutte said Ukraine will get a huge supply of weapons to boost its war effort against Russia under a new arms supply deal struck with the United States.

\"It will mean that Ukraine gets its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition,\" he told reporters at the White House meeting with Trump.

Trump said the supply amounted to \"billions of dollars\" worth of munitions and weapons, including Patriot anti-missile systems.

Trump launched a bid at rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term in January as he sought to honor his election campaign promise 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 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office in February.

But Trump has shown growing anger and frustration with Putin in recent weeks as the Russian leader, instead of halting his three-year invasion, instead stepped up attacks.

Last week, Trump had teased an announcement on Monday on Russia. He then announced on Sunday that he would send vital Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine to help it fend off escalating barrages of Russian attacks.

\"Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening,\" Trump said on Sunday. Last week he used an expletive when talking about the Kremlin chief.

Washington has also U-turned from an announcement earlier this month that it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv.

Instead it announced a new deal which would involve NATO and the European Union paying the United States for some of the weapons it sends to Ukraine.

Rutte's visit to the White House is the first since the former Dutch prime minister described Trump as \"daddy\" at a NATO summit in The Hague in June.

Moscow has unleashed record waves of drone and missile strikes over the past few weeks, with the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or wounded in June hitting a three-year high, according to UN figures.

Trump's announcement on Monday came as his special envoy Keith Kellogg arrived in Kyiv to meet Zelensky.

Zelensky hailed the \"productive meeting\", saying they had discussed \"strengthening Ukraine's air defense, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe.\"

The Ukrainian leader also said he was \"grateful to President Trump for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries,\" in an apparent reference to the pledge of new Patriots.

The deal for European and NATO allies to fund new weaponry for Ukraine has placated Trump, who has long complained about the United States funding Kyiv's fight against Moscow.