US President Donald Trump has told the BBC he is “disappointed but not done” with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone interview from the Oval Office.
Speaking just hours after announcing a major new military support package for Ukraine, Mr Trump confirmed the US will send additional weapons and warned of “severe tariffs” on Russia if a ceasefire is not reached within 50 days.
In the 20-minute call, his first interview with the BBC since surviving an assassination attempt one year ago, President Trump was pressed on whether he still trusts the Russian leader.
“I trust almost no-one,” he said, before adding, “I’m disappointed in him, but I’m not done with him.”
The president’s comments come amid an intensification of Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, which have led to record civilian casualties in recent weeks.
Mr Trump said he believed there had been at least four separate occasions when he thought peace was within reach.
“We’ll have a great conversation. I’ll say, ‘That’s good, I think we’re close to getting it done,’ and then he’ll knock down a building in Kyiv,” he said.
The president, who once called NATO “obsolete”, struck a notably different tone during the interview, saying the alliance is “now becoming the opposite of that”.
He attributed this to European countries “paying their own bills” and reaffirmed support for Article 5, NATO’s common defence clause.
“Smaller countries have to be able to defend themselves,” Mr Trump said, following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte earlier in the day.
