Trump touts weapons for Ukraine, threatens 100% tariffs on Russia trade : NPR

President Trump meets NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, in the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC on Monday.

Evan VUCCI / AP

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Evan VUCCI / AP

Moscow-President Trump threatened on Monday to punish Russia with heavy prices on countries that are negotiated with Moscow if the Kremlin fails to conclude a cease-fire agreement with Ukraine, while promising billions of dollars of kyiv.

“We are going to make very serious prices if we have no contract in 50 days,” said Trump at a meeting of the White House with NATO secretary, Mark Rutte. “The prices at around 100%, you would call them secondary prices.”

It was his latest warning against Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Trump is becoming more and more frustrated by the chief of the Kremlin about his war continues in Ukraine.

President Trump explained that NATO countries are acquiring weapons made in the United States, including Air Defense Missile Systems Patriot, and that these countries would provide them in Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists on Sunday before the meeting with Rutte, Trump put the arms agreements as a direct reprimand in Putin.

“We will send them patriots, which they desperately need because Putin really surprised a lot of people,” said Trump. “He speaks well and then he bomb everyone in the evening.”

Republican senators have sought to reconfigure a bill that would give Trump a sanctions switch on / deactivated in use as a lever with Moscow.

Collectively, the movements bear a striking turnover in Trump’s approach to President Putin on the question of Ukraine. Trump has come to promise that he could take advantage of his personal relationship with Putin to negotiate a rapid peace agreement, to openly criticize the chief of the Kremlin as inserted in negotiations to end the war.

“It all talks about it, then the missiles go to kyiv and kill 60 people,” Trump said on Monday. “It must stop.”

The announcement coincided with a visit to kyiv by the special envoy of the White House, Keith Kellogg, who included a seated with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy appeared optimistic in a video published on social networks, calling his discussions with Kellogg a “productive conversation” and praising Trump for “important support signals” for Ukraine.

“We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer.

“We hope for American leaders, because it is clear that Moscow will only stop if his unreasonable ambitions are reduced by force.”

Back in Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was waiting to hear all of Trump’s announcement, but has developed the decision to provide weapons by NATO, as a simple renowned American policy.

“The fact remains that the supply of weapons, ammunition and military equipment in the United States continued and continues in Ukraine,” Peskov told journalists.

The spokesperson also played recent profane declarations by Trump, which suggests that Putin was passionate about negotiations.

The American leader often engages in “difficult speeches”, noted Peskov, adding that Russia still hoped to repair bilateral relations.

Moscow political observers suggested that the kremlin’s silent response reflected recognition that she was dealing with an American president Mercurial. Trump’s frustrations with Russia today could contact Ukraine tomorrow.

“Why should they completely ruin relationships?” Sergey Poletaev, from the Moscow-based Vatfor analytical platform, said in an interview with NPR.

“In another six months, the pendulum could swing in the other direction.”