US president says Ukraine should have the ability to defend itself and is ‘getting hit very arduous’.
United States President Donald Trump has stated his administration will ship extra weapons to Ukraine after an earlier resolution to halt some arms shipments drew condemnation from Kyiv and its supporters.
Chatting with reporters forward of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Monday, Trump stated the brand new shipments can be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.
“We’re going to ship some extra weapons. We’ve got to. They’ve to have the ability to defend themselves,” Trump stated.
“They’re getting hit very arduous now.”
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed Trump’s feedback in a while Monday, saying that Washington would offer “extra defensive weapons” to “make sure the Ukrainians can defend themselves whereas we work to safe a long-lasting peace and make sure the killing stops”.
Parnell added that Trump would proceed to guage navy shipments abroad in accordance with “our America First defence priorities”.
Trump’s pledge got here after Russia introduced on Monday that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne, in Dnipropetrovsk, following a months-long push to grab territory within the central area.
The choice additionally adopted the Pentagon’s announcement final week that it will halt deliveries of some weapons, together with air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, out of concern that stockpiles had been working too low.
After a cellphone name with Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated he had agreed along with his US counterpart to work to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
“We spoke about alternatives in air defence and agreed that we’ll work collectively to strengthen safety of our skies,” Zelenskyy stated in a publish on X.
Trump on Friday described the decision as “superb” and stated his administration was “” promoting extra Patriot missiles to Kyiv.
“They want them for defence. I don’t wish to see individuals killed,” Trump instructed reporters on Air Drive One.
