US President Donald Trump said the United States would try to get Ukraine some more air defense systems to protect against deadly Russian attacks but would not commit to approving more aid for the embattled nation.<\/p>\n
Trump also seemed to pin most of the blame for the failure of peace negotiations on Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling him “misguided,” another sign of his growing frustration with the Kremlin leader.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has been pleading with the West for more air defense systems as Russia steps up its missile and drone attacks, including on civilian infrastructure, leading to the deaths of dozens of noncombatants.<\/p>\n
The United States and allies have delivered several Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine to protect their main cities but Russia has been overwhelming the country\u2019s air defense with attacks that include hundreds of missiles and drones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re going to see if we can make some [Patriots] available,\u201d Trump said on June 24 when asked by a reporter if he would sell air defense systems to Ukraine. \u201cThey’re very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Trump was less categorical when asked about further US military aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ll see what happens,\u201d Trump said when asked about American defense assistance for Ukraine, which is expected to run out in the coming months. Trump\u2019s Republican party is deeply divided on the issue with its isolationist wing strongly against aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Trump criticized the amount of US military aid sent to Ukraine during the 2024 presidential campaign but did not exclude the possibility of selling weapons to the country.<\/p>\n
Former US President Joe Biden approved $175 billion in military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine following Russia\u2019s invasion in February 2022. The aid was critical in helping Ukraine stop Russian forces. Trump has yet to approve any aid since taking power in January.<\/p>\n
‘A Monumental Win’<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump was speaking to reporters in the Netherlands following the conclusion of the annual NATO summit where allies agreed at the behest of Washington to boost defense spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product by 2035, more than double the current 2 percent target.<\/p>\n Trump has for years criticized NATO allies for not spending enough on their own defense, even threatening to pull out of the alliance or not defend those nations that don\u2019t meet spending targets. The fear of losing US military support at a time when Russia is rearming has forced allies to concede to higher spending targets.<\/p>\n Trump called the summit outcome “a monumental win for the United States\u201d and \u201ca big win for Western civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n The US president said NATO members are now set to boost defense spending by $1 trillion by 2035 under the agreement.<\/p>\n When asked about whether he supports Article 5 of the NATO charter, which states that allies will defend any member that is attacked, Trump said the spending boost changed his opinion of the alliance.<\/p>\n \u201cI left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It’s not a rip off, and we’re here to help them protect their country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ukraine War<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the summit. Trump, who has had a contentious relationship with the Ukrainian leader over the years, called the meeting \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine a top foreign policy priority, dispatching his envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow on at least three occasions to meet with Putin.<\/p>\n However, the Kremlin leader has so far refused to agree to Trump\u2019s proposed 30-day cease-fire.<\/p>\n \u201cVladimir Putin has been more difficult,\u201d Trump said, adding that he has also had \u201csome problems\u201d with Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n \u201cI consider [Putin] a person that has, I think, been misguided. I’m very surprised. Actually, I thought we would have had that [war] settled easy,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n The US president said he would be holding another call with Putin soon and urged the Russian leader to end the fighting.<\/p>\n \u201cVladimir Putin really has to end that war,” Trump said “People are dying at levels that people haven’t seen before for a long time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump said the United States would try to get Ukraine some more air defense systems…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,12,6323,6324,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-213749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia-invades-ukraine","12":"tag-the-rundown-stories","13":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114745289194804490","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}