The White House / Flickr
President Donald Trump July 14 announced a weapons deal with NATO that will channel US-manufactured arms to Ukraine and warned Russia it has 50 days to agree to a peace settlement — or it will face steep economic penalties.
“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said, speaking alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. “We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it.”
“It will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment,” Rutte added, “both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition.”
At the same time, Trump vowed to place “secondary tariffs” on Russia if it does not pursue peace.
“We are very unhappy — I am — with Russia… We’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in fifty days,” Trump said July 14. “Tariffs at about 100%. We call them secondary tariffs.”
The moves comes shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with a US envoy in Rome July 9, following what Zelenskyy described as Russia’s largest aerial assault since the war began. CatholicVote previously reported that Zelenskyy used the visit to request help strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses.
