Senator Chris Coons, a senior Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told BBC Verify that Trump’s decision to suspend weapons supplies on two occasions and his broader approach to Russian relations may have convinced the Kremlin that it had the freedom to increase attacks.
“It’s clear Putin feels emboldened by Trump’s weakness and has increased his vicious assault on the Ukrainian people, repeatedly attacking hospitals and maternity wards, the Ukrainian power grid, and other civilian sites,” he said.
The growing attacks have renewed calls for the US to send fresh supplies of Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine. The Patriots are the most capable and expensive air defence systems that Ukraine has. Each Patriot battery costs around $1bn (£800m), and each missile costs nearly $4m.
Trump has overturned the previous supply pauses and agreed to sell weapons to Nato members, who will in turn supply them to Kyiv. Trump appeared to imply that the deal would include fresh supplies of Patriot batteries.
Justin Bronk, an analyst focussing on the Russian military at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said restrictions on the supply of military equipment imposed by the White House had made Ukraine “vulnerable” to missile and drone attacks.
But he also noted that Russia has ramped up the production of missiles and so-called ‘kamikaze’ drones such as the Geran-2 – a domestically produced version of the Iranian Shahed drone. Mr Bronk said that Russia’s increased stockpiles, coupled with “significant reductions” in supply of US interceptor missiles had encouraged Moscow to escalate its air campaign.