US President said late on Monday that the US would be sending more weapons to help defend itself amid ‘s continued invasion.
Russia has ramped up attacks on Ukraine with almost daily drone and missile strikes across the country, all while the Trump administration had been pushing to bring an end to the war.
What exactly did Trump say?
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
“They’re getting hit very hard now,” he added. “We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily,” Trump said ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The US has been the largest contributor of military support for Ukraine and there had been concerns over the status of continued aid when Trump began his second term in office.
Trump has made a number of concessions to Moscow, and rolled back the vast amount of aid provided by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Stalled peace talks
Trump appears to have grown increasingly frustrated with Russian President and last week said there had been .
Following a call on Thursday with the Russian leader, Trump said he was “very disappointed with the conversation” and added “I don’t think he’s looking to stop [the war] and that’s too bad.”
It was the sixth publicly disclosed conversation between Trump and Putin since his return to the White House.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that sending arms to Ukraine prolonged the fighting.
“It is obvious of course that these actions probably do not align with attempts to promote a peaceful resolution,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying in a briefing.
Peskov said that it would take time to time to determine the amounts and types of weapons the US would be supplying.
Ukraine replacing US ambassador — report
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President has agreed to replace his country’s ambassador to the US, according to the Financial Times.
The UK publication cited sources familiar with the matter as saying the leaders had been in talks over possible successors with it being speculated the move was an attempt by Zelenskyy to appease Trump.
Oksana Makarova has held the position as ambassador in Washington since 2021 and has faced Republican criticism for being too close to the Democratic Party.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, will be attending an international aid conference for Ukraine in Rome in the coming days, the Reuters news agency has reported, citing an Italian government source.
Edited by: Elizabeth Schumacher
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