President Trump had promised a „major statement“ on Russia on Monday.
President Donald Trump had promised a „major statement“ on Russia on Monday, and it did look like a big shift in his approach to the war in Ukraine. But significant uncertainty remains amid a lack of key details.
Sitting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and apparently fed up with being slow-walked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump threatened the Kremlin with tough tariffs if it doesn’t make a deal to end the war within 50 days.
But perhaps more important was Trump’s shift on weapons.
After months of seeming to threaten he might cut off military aid to Ukraine entirely, on Monday Trump promised „billions“ in weapons would be sent, now that Europe will pay for them.
Trump and Rutte announced that other NATO countries have now agreed to purchase U.S. weapons on Ukraine’s behalf. Much remained unclear about the deal, but Rutte claimed it meant Ukraine will now be able to get „massive“ amounts of military equipment, including ammunition and missiles. European allies, he and Trump said, would also be able to now rush equipment from their own depleted stocks to Ukraine, knowing it can be backfilled.
If Trump now permits a substantial amount of U.S. weapons to continue to flow to Ukraine, that would mark an important change. Since Trump took office, many in Ukraine and European capitals have thought that might well be the best-case scenario for Ukraine, given the U.S. president’s clear hostility to continuing U.S. donations.
Most of all, it would send a very different message to Putin. For months, Putin has believed, Ukraine’s U.S. military backstop has been dissolving under Trump. That has emboldened Putin to push harder in military action against Ukraine.
