AGENCIES

US President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine yesterday, and threatened to hit buyers of Russian exports with sanctions unless Russia agrees a peace deal in 50 days, a major shift in policy brought on by frustration with Moscow.

Sitting side-by-side with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters that he was disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin. Billions of dollars in weapons would be distributed to Ukraine, he said.

“We’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to Nato,” Trump said, adding that Washington’s Nato allies would pay for the weapons.

The weapons would include Patriot air defence missiles, which Ukraine has urgently sought to defend its cities from Russian air strikes.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed gratitude to Trump for his readiness to protect Ukrainian lives.

“It’s a full complement with the batteries,” Trump said. “We’re going to have some come very soon, within days... a couple of the countries that have Patriots are going to swap over and will replace the Patriots with the ones they have.”

Some or all of 17 Patriot batteries ordered by other countries could be sent to Ukraine “very quickly”, he said.

His threat to impose so-called secondary sanctions on Russia, if carried out, would be a major shift in Western sanctions policy. Lawmakers from both political parties in the United States are pushing for a bill that would authorise such measures, targeting other countries that buy Russian oil, reports Reuters.

Throughout the more than three-year-old war, Western countries have cut off most of their own financial ties to Moscow, but have held back from taking steps that would restrict Russia from selling its oil elsewhere. That has allowed Moscow to continue earning hundreds of billions of dollars from shipping oil to buyers such as China and India.

“We’re going to be doing secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “If we don’t have a deal in 50 days, it’s very simple, and they’ll be at 100%.”

A White House official said Trump was referring to 100% tariffs on Russian goods as well as secondary sanctions on other countries that buy its exports.

Still, Trump’s announcement of a 50-day grace period was greeted with relief by investors in Russia, where the rouble recovered from earlier losses and stock markets rose.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas welcomed Trump’s tougher line on Russia, but said a 50-day ultimatum on punishing Moscow was “very long”, reports AFP.

“It is very positive President Trump is taking a strong stance on Russia,” Kallas told journalists. “On the other hand, 50 days is a very long time if we see that they are killing innocent civilians every day.”

Trump, who returned to power this year promising a quick end to the war, said his shift was motivated by increasing frustration with Putin, who, he said, had talked about peace but continued to strike Ukrainian cities.