President Donald Trump has used a White House dinner to announce plans to send more weapons to Ukraine to help them fend off Russian attacks.
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to,” Trump said on Monday at the dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” he added.
“We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily. But they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess.”
On Monday, a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”
It follows Trump saying on Friday he wasn’t sure if he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine, contradicting his repeated campaign promise to end the conflict in 24 hours.
“I can’t tell you whether or not that’s going to happen,” Trump told reporters.
Last week, Trump had phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
On Friday, Trump said the call to Putin made “no progress” and added, “I was very unhappy with my call with President Putin. He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people, it’s no good.”
Hours after the phone call with Trump, the Russian president launched 550 drones and missiles against Ukraine. It was the largest single aerial bombardment since Russia’s full-on invasion was launched in 2022.
The Council of Foreign Relations says the U.S. has provided weapons worth tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, and other assistance, since February 2022 when Russia launched their invasion of the country.
Ukraine is now the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid, although in March Trump froze all military assistance to Ukraine, before reversing the decision after ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia.
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