The Kremlin has reacted icily to US President Donald Trump’s warnings to President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, saying Kyiv will see recent decisions by him and NATO as a signal to continue the war.

“The US President’s statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday (local time).

“We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington.”

It follows Trump’s announcement, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, of new weapons for Ukraine and his threat of “biting” secondary tariffs of 100 per cent on the buyers of Russian exports unless there is a peace deal in Ukraine in 50 days.

But Peskov said it was already clear that decisions in Washington and other NATO capitals were “perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace but as a signal to continue the war”.

Putin, who has spoken to Trump by telephone at least six times in 2025, has yet to comment publicly on the remarks.

But two other senior Russian officials did not hold back.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council, said Moscow did not care about Trump’s “theatrical ultimatum”. Elsewhere, senior Russian diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, suggested that giving ultimatums to Moscow was unacceptable and pointless.

Trump, who has said he wants to be seen as a “peacemaker” President, said he wanted to see the end of the war – on which he said the US had spent $US350 billion ($A534 billion) – but that he had been “disappointed” by Putin.

Trump specifically expressed frustration that Putin’s “talk” of peace was often followed by Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities, and indicated Washington wanted to press Moscow into ending the war by sending more arms to Ukraine.

“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” Trump said of Putin, a reference to former US president Joe Biden calling the Russian leader “a killer” in a 2021 interview.

The Financial Times reported that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up strikes deep in Russian territory, even asking President Volodymyr Zelensky whether he could hit Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons.

However, Trump denied those reports on Tuesday.

“No, he shouldn’t target Moscow,” he said on the South Lawn of the White House.

Asked if he was willing to give long-range missiles to Ukraine as well as more defensive arms, he said: “No, we’re not looking to do that.”

Trump told the BBC that he was “not done” with Putin and that he thought a Ukraine peace deal was on the cards. Asked if he trusted Putin, he reportedly paused.

“I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you,” he said.

He has also defended his 50-day deadline for a Ukraine ceasefire.

“I don’t think 50 days is very long and it could be sooner than that,” he said.

Trump did not say whether any talks were planned to try to work out a deal with Russia.

“At the end of the 50 days if we don’t have a deal, it’s going to be too bad,” he said.

Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces.

The US says 1.2 million people have been injured or killed in the war.

In Moscow, state television broadcasts led with advances by Russian troops in Ukraine, of which Russian forces control just under a fifth, and an attack on Russia by Ukrainian drones that injured 18 people.

Kommersant, one of Russia’s most respected newspapers, invoked William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” in its front page headline to suggest betrayal: “Et tu, Trump – the main peacekeeper of Ukrainian conflict joined the ‘party of war’ “.

Putin has repeatedly said he is ready to make peace – but on his terms – and there is no point discussing a ceasefire until the details of what a peace would look like are nailed down.

In Washington, a White House official said Trump intended to impose “100 per cent tariffs on Russia” and secondary sanctions on nations that buy oil from Russia unless a peace deal is struck.

China, India and Turkey are the biggest buyers of crude from Russia, the world’s second-largest exporter of oil.

-with AAP