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Donald Trump says will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, but US 'won't pay for them'
Donald Trump declined to say how many air defence missiles he would send to Ukraine but said he would send some.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday reiterated that his administration will send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine amid Kyiv’s conflict with Russia.
Trump declined to say how many air defence missiles he would send to Ukraine but said he would send some. He also added that Washington would not be paying for the weapons.
“We’re not paying anything for them. But we will get them Patriots, which they desperately need,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on his way back to the White House.
This comes amid his previous stance of not sending weapons and aid to Ukraine as he pushed for a ceasefire in Kyiv’s war with Moscow that has been raging for four years now.
Ukraine has said it needs the air defence missiles to protect itself from Russian airstrikes.
Ukraine had been receiving weapons from the US, but only with money remaining from Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden’s time in office. Trump had previously refused to consider seeking additional funds, arguing that it would only harden Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stance and diminish the chances of ending the fighting.
Trump said on Sunday that the US is supplying sophisticated weapons and that Ukraine will “pay us 100% for them.”
Trump ‘frustrated’ with Putin as Ukraine war rages on
During his presidential campaign and his first months in office, Donald Trump had cast Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the obstacle to peace, and bemoaned the US military and financial support his country has received.
In February, he derided Zelenskyy as a “modestly successful comedian” and a “dictator.” He had even confronted the Ukrainian President in a very public spat at the White House.
But recently, the Republican leader expressed growing exasperation with his Russian counterpart in recent weeks as Vladimir Putin unleashed a massive aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities and sidestepped calls for a ceasefire.
He said in an interview on Thursday that the US would send more defensive weapons to Ukraine, reversing a Pentagon decision to pause some shipments.
That halt had provoked fears that the US was backing away from Ukraine for good and was unwilling to intervene to repel Russia’s slow but steady advance.
Zelenskyy said an earlier meeting with US and European allies in Rome stoked optimism that Trump would ramp up military aid to the war-battered country, including air defence.
