President Trump said he would help Europe speed more weapons to Ukraine and warned Russia that if it did not agree to a peace deal within 50 days, he would impose a new round of punishing sanctions.
Speaking from the Oval Office, where he met with NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, Mr. Trump said the weapons would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield.” He also threatened to impose secondary sanctions, which are penalties imposed on other countries or parties that trade with nations under sanctions. .
“I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there,” Mr. Trump said.
“It’s just the way it is,” he added. “I hope we don’t have to do it.”
Mr. Trump, who has dodged questions about whether he thought President Vladimir V. Putin has sought to prolong the war, was quick to say that he didn’t believe he was being played by the Russian leader. Russia, which launched an unprovoked invasion on Ukraine in 2022, has escalated its attacks on Ukraine amid peace negotiations.
“My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night,” said Mr. Trump, who indicated that Mr. Putin had repeatedly backed out of deals to bring an end to the three-year war.
“He’s fooled a lot of people,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin, who he called a “tough guy.” “He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden — he didn’t fool me,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Rutte were scheduled to discuss the logistics of a plan coordinated by Mr. Rutte in which the United States would sell Patriot air defense missiles to NATO members, who would then supply them to Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters after the Oval Office meeting, Mr. Trump said that the deal with the NATO allies was done, and fully approved.
“We’ll send them a lot of weapons of all kinds,” Mr. Trump said. “And they’re going to deliver those weapons immediately to the site, to the site of the war, different sites of the war, and they’re going to pay for 100 percent of them.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to punish Russia over its escalating attacks in Ukraine, but so far has not followed through. Sanctions that punish Russia’s energy sector and its customers, as a proposed Senate bill would do, would hurt Moscow much more than tariffs on the low level of goods Russia sends to the United States.
While Mr. Trump said that the U.S. would levy secondary tariffs on Russia, White House officials later clarified that secondary sanctions were also on the table. Secondary sanctions would target countries that do financial business with Russia.
But Mr. Trump’s announcement came as he faced pressure from congressional lawmakers to impose harsh economic penalties, and European leaders have banded together to impose harsher sanctions. Since taking office, Mr. Trump has attempted to leverage his longstanding relationship with Mr. Putin to bring an end to the war — which he once claimed he could end in 24 hours — but to no avail.
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting.
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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