Europe | Art of the U-Turn

Fed up with Putin, Trump offers Ukraine arms and tariffs

America will supply air-defence missiles and may punish countries that trade with Russia

President Trump Meets With NATO Secretary General Rutte At The White House
Photograph: Getty Images
|Kharkiv|5 min read

AFTER HIS first post-election call with Vladimir Putin in February, Donald Trump gushed about the “great benefits” of a rapprochement with Russia and seemed to relish the prospect of visiting the Kremlin. On July 14th he lost patience, announcing that America would resume supplies of Patriot air-defence missiles and other weapons, and threatening secondary tariffs of 100% on countries doing business with Russia if there was no peace deal within 50 days. “We’re very unhappy with Russia,” Mr Trump declared.

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