US and NATO Agree to Provide Weapons to Ukraine as Trump Sets Deadline for Putin

Donald Trump has announced plans to send 'top-of-the-line' weapons to Ukraine, with NATO member nations covering the cost.

'We've made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they're NATO going to be paying for them,' Mr Trump said at a joint White House announcement with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte.

The US president said he was giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a 50-day deadline to do 'a deal'. He threatened to impose secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on Russia's trading partners if a deal was not reached.

'This is really big,' NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte said. 'It will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defence, but also missiles, ammunition, etc.

'So if I was Vladimir Putin today and I hear you speaking about what you are planning to do in 50 days, and this announcement, I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment.'

Earlier, Mr Trump confirmed the US would send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine. At the White House, he said 'a full complement' of weapons would be provided via the NATO deal.

Mr Trump said he was 'very unhappy' with Mr Putin after multiple conversations had failed to bring an end to the war. 'Maybe he'll start negotiating,' Mr Trump said. 'I felt that we had a deal about four times. And here we are still talking about it.'