Donald Trump stated on Monday that the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine to help it repel Russian attacks, arguing that Moscow's recent assault on Ukrainian cities left him no other choice.
"We will send more weapons. We must. They must be able to defend themselves. They are being heavily shelled right now," Trump told reporters at the White House. He also noted that he was disappointed in Vladimir Putin, who did not meet expectations for achieving a truce.
Following this, the Pentagon officially announced the dispatch of additional weapons to Ukraine at Donald Trump's direction. "At President Trump's direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine so that Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work towards ensuring lasting peace and ending the killings," said Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell in a statement published on the department's website.
According to sources from the Wall Street Journal, Trump promised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to provide Kyiv with "as much weaponry as possible" during their last conversation, which took place on July 4. However, deliveries of missiles for Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, Stinger portable anti-aircraft missile systems, and grenade launchers have not yet resumed.
Last week, the White House acknowledged that the administration had suspended arms deliveries to Ukraine, citing Pentagon concerns about dwindling U.S. weapon stocks. At the time, the White House press secretary described this decision as an assessment of munitions supplied worldwide.
However, on Friday, Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, launching, according to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the largest number of drones and missiles in the entire war. The attack occurred just hours after a phone conversation between Trump and Putin, which, as Trump told reporters after the conversation, brought "no progress"—a sharp assessment of relations that the president usually describes in more optimistic terms.
Politico, citing its sources, writes that the U.S. may resume supplying some types of weapons to Ukraine after meetings this week between Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustam Umerov. The meetings are scheduled in Rome on July 10-11, and then in Kyiv the following week. The key issue of the discussions will be the resumption of aid deliveries, suspended earlier this month.
According to the publication, the U.S. informed Kyiv that deliveries of engineering equipment and some armored personnel carriers will resume soon, although exact dates have not yet been specified.
Photo: Francis Chung / CNP / Keystone Press Agency