The US is selling weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so that they can provide them to Ukraine because it struggles to fend off a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks, President Donald Trump and his chief diplomat said.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an interview with NBC late Thursday. “So what we’re doing is, the weapons which can be going out are going to NATO, after which NATO goes to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that a few of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is in search of are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons might be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.
“It’s quite a bit faster to maneuver something, for instance, from Germany to Ukraine than it’s to order it from a (U.S.) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Ukraine badly needs more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russian ballistic and cruise missiles. Trump’s Republican administration has given conflicting signals about its readiness to supply more vital military aid to Ukraine for its greater than three years of fighting Russia’s invasion.
After a pause in some weapons shipments, Trump said he would keep sending defensive weapons to Ukraine. U.S. officials said this week that 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets were on their way.
Ukraine is in search of more coveted Patriot air defense systems
Germany, Spain and other European countries possess Patriot missile systems, and a few have placed orders for more, Rubio said.
The U.S. is encouraging its NATO allies “to supply those weapons, systems, the defensive systems that Ukraine seeks … since they’ve them of their stocks, after which we will enter into financial agreements with them, with us, where they can buy the replacements,” Rubio said.
Ukraine has asked foreign countries to produce it with an extra 10 Patriot systems and missiles, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday. Germany is prepared to supply two systems, and Norway has agreed to produce one, he said.
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major aerial attacks. Earlier this week, Russia fired greater than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine, topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks.
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At the identical time, Russia’s greater army is pressing hard on parts of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, where hundreds of soldiers on either side have died for the reason that Kremlin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
Impact of the newest Russian attacks
In the newest attacks, a Russian drone barrage targeted the centre of Kharkiv just before dawn Friday, injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said.
Moms with newborns were being evacuated to a unique medical facility, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram. He didn’t say whether anyone on the hospital was among the many injured.
Also, a daytime drone attack on the southern city of Odesa injured nine people.
“There isn’t a silence in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said after the Kharkiv bombardment. Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has endured repeated and intensifying drone attacks in recent weeks, as have many other regions of the country, mostly at night.
June brought the best monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said Thursday. Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the identical month last yr, it said.
Other weapons sought by Ukraine
Zelenskyy urged Ukraine’s Western partners to quickly enact pledges of help they made at a global meeting in Rome on Thursday.
Ukraine also needs more interceptor drones to bring down Russian-made Shahed drones, he said, adding Moscow plans to fabricate as much as 1,000 drones a day.
Zelenskyy said Thursday that talks with Trump have been “very constructive.”
After repeated Russian drone and missile onslaughts in Kyiv, authorities announced Friday they’re establishing a comprehensive drone interception system under a project called Clear Sky.
The project features a $6.2 million investment in interceptor drones, operator training, and recent mobile response units, in keeping with the top of the Kyiv Military Administration.
Zelenskyy appealed to foreign partners to assist Ukraine speed up the production of the newly developed interceptor drones, which have proved successful against Shaheds.
“We found an answer, as a rustic, scientists and engineers found an answer. That’s the important thing,” he said. “We’d like financing. After which, we are going to intercept.”
—AP Diplomatic Author Matthew Lee contributed from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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