US president Donald Trump on Monday said that America will have to send more weapons to Ukraine to help the war-torn country defend itself against Russian offensive, days after ordering a pause in the critical delivery of weapons to Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that Ukraine was getting hit by Russia very hard and it needs to defend itself. The US president detailed that America would be sending primarily defensive weapons. Earlier on Friday, Trump had said that Ukraine would need Patriot missiles to be able to defend itself but the US leader skipped mentioning it on Monday.
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard, now. They’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily,” Trump said at the White House ahead of the start of ‘private dinner’ with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The comments by Trump appeared to be a complete change in stance after the Pentagon last week announced to pause the delivery of some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons to Ukraine amid the concerns that its own stockpiles have depleted too much.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after a call with President Trump on Friday, had said that the US leader had agreed to work on increasing Kyiv’s capability to “defend the sky” as Russian attacks escalated. Zelenskyy discussed joint defense production, purchases and investments with Trump.
Meanwhile, Moscow escalated its offensive against Kyiv and the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including seven children, officials said on Monday.
Ukraine has been asking the US to sell more of its Patriot missiles and other systems in order to defend its cities from intensifying Russian attacks. “I’m not happy with President Putin at all,” Trump said.
