WASHINGTON (MNS) — President Donald Trump on Monday issued a sharp ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin: agree to a cease-fire in Ukraine within 50 days or face sweeping new tariffs and sanctions. The proposed policy would impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russia’s trading partners, a move intended to isolate Moscow further and pressure its allies economically.
“We’re very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs, if you don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100%, they call them secondary tariffs,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday.
The announcement marked a notable shift in Trump’s strategy on Ukraine from an emphasis on diplomacy to targeted action. After months of private talks with Putin, Trump grew impatient, expressing frustration with repeated failed efforts to broker peace and a deal he believes should have been reached “two months ago.”
“I speak to [Putin] a lot about getting this thing done, and I always hang up saying, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call,’ and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city,” Trump said. “And after that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn’t mean anything.”
A key part of the president’s threat was an intent to penalize countries that conduct major trade with Russia.
Russia’s economy has been able to weather economic sanctions from the West due to vast sales of fossil fuels to China, India, Turkey and other countries. In particular, China has remained the largest global buyer of Russian fossil fuels in June 2025, accounting for 38% of Russia’s monthly export earnings, according to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. But the secondary tariffs Trump outlined look to deliver a major blow and could have dramatic implications on nations that rely heavily on Russian exports.
The tariff threat came alongside the announcement of a major U.S.-NATO arms deal aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defense capabilities within days. Under the plan, European allies would purchase U.S.-made weapons, including highly sought after Patriot air defense missiles, and “very quickly” transfer them to Ukraine in a weapons package that could be worth about $10 billion, according to the WSJ.
“It’s a full complement with the batteries,” Trump said. “We’re going to have some come very soon, within days.”
Rutte called the deal “really big,” adding that it is “only the first wave.”
“This is again European nations standing up,” Rutte said. “I’ve been in contact with many countries, I can tell you at this moment Germany, massively, but also Finland and Denmark and Sweden and Norway, we have the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Canada – they all want to be part of this.”
This comes almost a month after nearly every NATO country agreed to boost their defense spending to 5% of their nation’s GDP.
Trump emphasized that the United States would not fund the weapons directly, but will manufacture and sell the equipment to willing NATO partners, which would supply them to Ukraine. The arms deal would allow the Republican president to maintain his campaign pledge to reduce direct U.S. military support to Ukraine while still bolstering Ukraine’s defenses.
“We make the best equipment, the best missiles… We’re going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them. The United States will NOT be having any payment made,” according to an official White House post on X (formerly Twitter).
Some experts said the dual pressure of NATO supplying weapons to Ukraine and increasing economic sanctions on Russia, could save Ukrainian lives by deterring further Russian attacks.
“Putin has run out of road with Trump,” said Peter Doran, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in a statement released Monday. “After six months of being strung along, Trump has concluded that Putin’s promises are worthless. It’s a necessary change, and Trump is now flexing by helping the Ukrainians while still leaving open the possibility of a negotiated settlement.”
It was unclear if Trump’s tariff threat would be carried out, or if this strategy, which would impose a Sep. 2 deadline, would impact Putin’s war in Ukraine. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced a bipartisan bill on April 1, that would impose 500% tariffs on any nation that continues to trade with Russia. However, the bill has yet to pass Congress.
Russia still controls about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory and has shown no signs of slowing down the over three-year-old war, continuing to use hundreds of drones to attack eastern Ukrainian cities in recent days, according to Reuters.