Trump proposes rearming Ukraine in response to Putin's refusal
- What does the rearmament consist of?
- Peace agreement or tariffs
- Trump's change of tone towards Putin
Six months after US President Donald Trump promised to end the war in less than 24 hours, he has declared that he is ‘very disappointed’ with Russian President Vladimir Putin's refusal. ‘I am very disappointed with Putin, but I have not given up yet,’ Donald Trump said.
Vladimir Putin's constant attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities have been a constant since talks with Donald Trump began. In just a few days, hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles have been launched against all kinds of targets throughout the territory, which Kiev's defences are no longer able to counter.
As a result, he announced, alongside his vice president, JD Vance, a new rearmament plan for Europeans to purchase billions of dollars in military equipment, consisting mainly of Patriot air defence missiles and ‘highly sophisticated’ military equipment for Ukraine.
What does the rearmament consist of?
The US president revealed the details of the arms shipments to Ukraine in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is currently leading efforts to coordinate acquisitions by allied countries, during a meeting with his vice president and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.
The plan aims to allow the United States to deliver more lethal weapons to Ukraine to counter Russia's constant bombardment during its summer offensive, while alleviating US debt problems.
Meanwhile, the NATO secretary general announced that Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom and France will be the buyers of the weapons to be supplied to Ukraine.
Peace agreement or tariffs
Such is the frustration over the stalemate in talks to end the war that Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to Russia to reach a peace agreement and halt missile and drone attacks on Ukraine in less than 50 days, while warning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to directly attack Russian positions in Moscow.
If this does not happen, Donald Trump announced that 100% tariffs will be imposed on both Russia and its allies, especially China, India and Brazil. Since then, talks between the Russian leader and Trump have stalled.
Among the objectives of the sanctions are to isolate Russia from the global economy and curb the purchase of oil, gas and raw materials from India and China, to whom Russia is selling more than twice the amount of hydrocarbons than it did before the invasion began.
Meanwhile, Russia hopes to soon gain control of the Donetsk region by taking the logistics centre in Pokrovsk, in the east of the country. At the same time, Russian forces continue their advance in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine, where Moscow seeks to establish a ‘buffer zone’ to protect the areas under its control, which cover a front line of more than 1,000 kilometres.
Trump's change of tone towards Putin
It is no secret that the relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during the US president's term in office was very good.
During last year's election campaign, the Russian president hinted that he wanted Donald Trump to return to the US presidency, as he was the only one with whom there was a real possibility of ending the conflict. In fact, Trump has boasted on several occasions that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to end the conflict.
However, Putin's refusals and his responses in the form of bombings of Ukrainian civilians are causing the US leader to ‘start losing patience,’ according to AP. ‘My conversations with him [Putin] are very nice, but then the missiles start flying at night,’ Donald Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social.
