Donald Trump has said he has made a deal to sell weapons to NATO to help Ukraine.
The US president said he was going to be sending “top of the line weapons” to NATO, which will then be able to send them on to Ukraine.
“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them,” he said.
Trump said NATO members, not American taxpayers, would cover the cost of the weapons.
The war has “got to stop”, he added. “This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
He said Patriot missile batteries will be sent “within days” and “will start arriving soon”.
Trump threatens Russia with tariffs
Donald Trump threatened Russia with “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if it does not strike a deal to end the Ukraine war in 50 days, calling them “secondary tariffs”.
The White House has now clarified the US president means he will impose 100% tariffs on Russia, and secondary sanctions on countries that buy oil from Russia, if a deal isn’t struck within 50 days.
Trade is ‘great’ for settling wars, Trump says
Trade is “great for settling wars,” Donald Trump has said, after he announced a new weapons package for Ukraine and threatened Russia with higher sanctions.
“This is a chance for peace,” the US president said.
He said he thought he had a deal with Russia on ending the Ukraine war “about four times” but “here were are still talking”.
“I thought we should have had a deal done a long time ago, but it just keeps going on and on and on,” he added.
Trump also blamed the war on his predecessor Joe Biden, calling it “a Biden war”.
He said he speaks to Vladimir Putin “a lot” and claimed the Russian leader “knows what a fair deal is”.
Trump said he used to talk to Putin about Ukraine “a lot” and “it was the apple of his eye”.
He expressed some frustration, saying he has held recent calls with Putin where afterwards he would say “that was a nice phone call” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”. Sky News