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Days after making the decision to send “more weapons” to Ukraine, Trump and his chief diplomat said the US will be sending the weapons to its NATO allies in Europe, who will pay for them “100%” and then provide them to the war-torn country.
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The US deal with NATO comes after the US President said Ukraine was getting hit by Russia very hard and it needs to defend itself, following a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks. The Trump administration has gone back and forth about providing more vital military aid to Ukraine more than three years into Russia’s invasion.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we’re doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and NATO is paying for those weapons,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News late Thursday.
Some of the US-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the US. “It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (US) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
How does NATO feature in this this plan?
Details of Trump’s plan on sending weapons through NATO allies are “still being worked out”, as per news agency AP. A senior NATO military official said Trump had spoken to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte about the plan
Now, NATO itself doesn’t send weapons to Ukraine or otherwise own or handle arms, but it does coordinate the deliveries of weapons to a logistics hub in Poland, bordering Ukraine. While the direct handling of weapons comes can be done its 32 member nations, the alliance itself ships items like medical supplies and fuel.
“Allies continue to work to ensure that Ukraine has the support they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression. This includes urgent efforts to procure key supplies from the United States, including air defense and ammunition,” NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said.
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Earlier in the week, Trump detailed that the US would be sending primarily defensive weapons. Later, he said that Ukraine would need Patriot missiles to be able to defend itself which was not mentioned thereafter.
Now, the US is encouraging its NATO allies to provide “the defensive systems that Ukraine seeks … since they have them in their stocks, and then we can enter into financial agreements with them, with us, where they can purchase the replacements,” Rubio said. Germany, Spain and other European countries possess Patriot missile systems, and some have placed orders for more, he added.
US weapons already in Europe could be transferred to Ukraine under Trump’s proposal, as could American-made weapons previously purchased by allies.
“NATO has effective mechanisms in place to make something like this possible,” the official said on condition of anonymity. A senior European defense official said it was their understanding that European nations would purchase US weapons for Ukraine under the plan.
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Trump with Putin, Zelenskyy
Trump’s efforts to facilitate Ukraine’s weapon supply come as he has signaled his displeasure with Russian President Putin. At a Cabinet meeting this week, he said he was “not happy” with Putin over a conflict that was “killing a lot of people” on both sides. In the NBC News interview, Trump teased that he will make a major announcement on Russia next week.
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major aerial attacks. This week, Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine, topping previous barrages for the third time in two weeks. Russia’s bigger army is pressing hard on parts of the 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line
Ukraine has asked other countries to supply it with an additional 10 Patriot systems and missiles, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday.
In the latest attacks, a Russian drone barrage targeted the center of Kharkiv just before dawn Friday, injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said. “There is no silence in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. A daytime drone attack on the southern city of Odesa also injured nine.
— With AP inputs
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