President Donald Trump and members of his administration say the U.S. will look to sell weapons to Ukraine via NATO and European allies, as he promises a “major statement” on Russia on Monday.
In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress toward ending the war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100 per cent,” Trump said in an interview excerpt released on Thursday for NBC’s Meet the Press, to be broadcast Sunday. He also teased next week’s unspecified Russia announcement.
For the first time since returning to office, Trump will send weapons to Kyiv under the drawdown presidential power frequently used by his predecessor, two sources familiar with the decision told Reuters on Thursday. There was no additional military aid for Ukraine in Trump’s budget bill passed last week.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a social media post on Thursday he had “just spoken with President Trump & am now working closely with Allies to get Ukraine the help they need.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday of the plans to seek the co-operation of allies that, “it’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from [an American] factory and get it there.”
U.S. envoy heading to Kyiv
The U.S. comments come after the Pentagon last week ordered some military aid deliveries to Ukraine be turned around in Europe. Trump reversed that decision this week.
The package could include defensive Patriot missiles and offensive medium-range rockets, but a decision on the exact equipment has not been made,” two sources familiar with the U.S. plans told Reuters.
With Russia again bombarding Ukraine with drones, U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s considering sending another missile defence system to Ukraine.
When asked about the prospect of new NATO weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in Russia called it “just business” as Kyiv had already been receiving weapons from alliance members.
Trump had pledged to swiftly end the war but months into his presidency, little progress has been made. The Republican president has sometimes criticized U.S. spending on Ukraine’s defence, spoken favorably of Russia and publicly clashed with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy.
At other times, he has expressed disappointment with Russia’s continued bombardment of Ukraine, or suggested the two countries may have to fight for some time longer, drawing an analogy to children on a playground.
At talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while in Malaysia, Rubio said he had reinforced the message that Moscow should show more flexibility.
“We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude,” he said.
Russia’s foreign minister in North Korea
Lavrov, for his part, then travelled on to North Korea, which has provided Russia with soldiers and equipment in its Ukraine war effort.
Russia’s effective use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers far behind enemy lines.
“The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine,” U.S. Army Maj.-Gen. John Rafferty said in an interview with Reuters from a U.S. military base in Wiesbaden, Germany.
As a result, Rafferty said, it is really important for NATO to boost its investment in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences.
As peace negotiations drag on, Russia continues to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones. CBC’s Terence McKenna examines what it would take for Vladimir Putin to call off his war and why U.S. pressure doesn’t seem to be working.
Fabian Hoffmann, a doctoral research fellow at Oslo University who specializes in missiles, estimated that the U.S. provides some 90 per cent of NATO’s long-range missile capabilities.
Aware of this vulnerability, European countries in NATO have agreed to increase defence spending, in part under pressure from Trump and his cabinet members, including Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
It’s not clear if Monday’s announcement hinted by Trump would be about weapons or new Russian sanctions, which Zelenskyy has been advocating for.
Keith Kellogg, U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, told that country’s Novyny.LIVE that he will be in Kyiv Monday for a weeklong visit.
Moms with newborns flee hospital
In fighting on Friday, a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv damaged a maternity hospital, authorities said, terrifying patients as windows shattered and shards of glass fell on to the beds, leaving families rushing to shelter their babies.
Oleksandra Lavrynenko was at the hospital after just giving birth.
“We woke up and heard a very loud whistle. My husband and I got up and quickly went to our little one, and at that moment there was a hit and the windows shattered,” she said.
Russia in recent weeks has frequently targeted Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, located in the northeast of the country.
Nine people were injured in Kharkiv and an apartment building was also damaged in the attack.
Elsewhere, Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its forces had captured the village of Zelena Dolyna in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield assertions.
