Trump announces novel plan to send weapons to Ukraine and gives Russia new deadline to make peace

President Donald Trump on Monday laid out a pair of steps intended to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine, including funneling new weapons to Kyiv and threatening economic punishment on Moscow if peace isn't reached in 50 days, as he grows increasingly disenchanted with his Russian counterpart.

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Taken together, the moves amount to a markedly new approach to the conflict, which Trump has worked to distance himself from since taking office in January. Even as he delivered the announcement from the Oval Office, the president argued he wasn't to blame for the prolonged war. Still, he appeared entirely fed up with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And he acknowledged American weaponry-however it is delivered - would be necessary if Kyiv is to stave off a fullbore invasion. "I felt we had a deal about four times," Trump said, referring to a prospective peace agreement with Russia.

"But it just kept going on and on." The plan the president unveiled Monday which would see European nations purchase American weapons, then transfer them to Ukraine has been under discussion for months, ever since Trump won last year's election and European officials quickly began deliberating on ways to sustain US weapons shipments to Ukraine under a leader who had vowed to pull back American support. Eight months later, the president announced the plan during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. The president also laid out his new deadline for Russia-threatening trade consequences if no peace deal is reached.

with Ukraine within 50 days. We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said. "Tariffs at about 100%, you'd call them secondary tariffs. You know what that means." "I use trade for a lot of things," Trump said. "But it's great for settling wars." A White House official clarified to CNN that when the president referred to "secondary tariffs," he meant 100% tariffs on Russia and secondary sanctions on other countries that buy Russian oil. The US conducts very little trade with Russia, making the secondary sanctions the piece with potentially the most bite. "They're secondary sanctions.