Donald Trump is working on establishing a Ukraine victory fund which will be bankrolled by fresh tariffs on China.

The US president instructed Scott Bessent, his treasury secretary, to float the plan to European counterparts ahead of Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington DC on Friday.

Mr Trump, who previously claimed Mr Zelensky did not “hold the cards” for a military victory, is increasingly losing patience with Vladimir Putin, and his proposal for a Ukraine war shift marks a significant change in his position.

His language was mimicked by Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, who told a meeting of Nato counterparts that the US was prepared to support Kyiv “in ways that only the United States can do” should Russia continue to shun peace talks.

Discussions in Brussels focused on the potential delivery of long-range Tomahawk missiles and funding Ukraine’s armed resistance into a fifth year.

“President Trump has instructed the ambassador and myself to tell our European allies that we would be in favour of whether you would call it a ‘Russian oil tariff’ on China or a ‘Ukrainian victory tariff’ on China,” Mr Bessent told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

“But our Ukrainian or European allies have to be willing to follow. We will respond if our European partners will join us.”