Trump threatens Russia with tariffs and boosts US weapons for Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened Russia with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending the war.

The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the Republican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump once focused his criticism on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he described as unwilling to compromise, but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin.

“My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night,” Trump said. He complained that “it just keeps going on and on and on.”

Trump said he would implement “severe tariffs” unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia's trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy.

In addition, Trump said European allies would buy “billions and billions” of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country’s supplies of weapons. He made the announcement in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles.

Doubts were recently raised about Trump’s commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S. stockpiles were running low.

Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. He said “speed is of the essence here,” and he suggested that some weapons would be rushed to Ukraine and later replaced with purchases from the U.S.

Later Monday, Zelenskyy posted about having spoken with Trump by phone and said he “discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions.”

Zelenskyy added that Trump had “agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future.”

Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and he repeatedly asserted that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. He also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a “dictator without elections.”

But Russia’s relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump’s patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader “has gone absolutely CRAZY!”.

While Rutte was in Washington, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said he had “a productive conversation” with Kellogg about strengthening Ukrainian air defenses, joint arms production and purchasing U.S. weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin.

“We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its ... ambitions are stopped by force,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine’s air defenses are struggling to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said.

At the same time, Russia’s bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.

Trump confirmed the U.S. is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defense missiles and that the European Union will pay the U.S. for the “various pieces of very sophisticated” weaponry.

A senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, said Trump’s plan had “only one beneficiary — the US military-industrial complex.”

Germany has offered to finance two Patriot systems, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Monday in Berlin. The country has already given three of its own Patriot systems to Ukraine.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was traveling to Washington on Monday to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“We are determined to assume greater responsibility for Europe’s deterrence and defense, while recognizing that the contribution of the United States of America remains indispensable to our collective security,” Pistorius told reporters.

A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday that the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion.

Although Trump had previously dismissed the effort as a waste of U.S. taxpayer money, Graham told CBS' “Face the Nation” that “you'll see weapons flowing at a record level.”

“One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump," he said. "And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there’s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table.”

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for international investment who took part in talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in February, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.

“Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure,” Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. “This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means.”

Although Trump proposed targeting Russia with new tariffs, he expressed doubts about bipartisan legislation to punish the country even further.

“I'm not sure we need it,” he said. “It could be very useful. We'll have to see.”

The legislation increases sanctions and places 500% tariffs on products imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas and other exports. Trump on Monday proposed unilaterally implementing 100% tariffs.

“I use trade for a lot of things,” he said. “But it’s great for settling wars.”

Since Dec. 5, 2022, when the European Union banned Russian oil, China has bought 47% of Russia’s crude oil exports, followed by India at 38%. Turkey and the EU have each accounted for 6%, according to the Centre for Research and Clean Air, a Finnish nonprofit that tracks the energy industry.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow in China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, doubted that tariffs would change the course of the war.

“Oil is fungible, and Russia has developed a nimble shadow fleet," he said. "So enforcement would be a challenge.’’

However, the tariffs could still have a dramatic effect, depending on how they're implemented.

Adding a 100% tariff on China, on top of import taxes already in place, would essentially halt trade between the United States and China, the world's two largest economies.

In a joint statement, the co-sponsors of the sanctions package working its way through Congress, Graham and Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, praised Trump for having “made a powerful move.” They also defended their legislation, noting, “The benefit of our approach is that it blends congressional authorization of tariffs and sanctions with flexibility for presidential implementation, making it rock solid legally and politically.”

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Paul Wiseman and David Klepper in Washington and Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump, right, meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg pose for a photo in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg talk in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, left, meets with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, at a train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, July 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, shakes hands with United States Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Joseph Keith Kellogg, during their meeting in Rome, Italy, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)