{"id":265032,"date":"2025-07-14T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265032\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:36:09","slug":"kyiv-hails-us-weapons-deal-as-moscow-dismisses-trumps-sanctions-threat-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265032\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyiv hails US weapons deal as Moscow dismisses Trump\u2019s sanctions threat | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians in Kyiv have welcomed Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that billions of dollars worth of US military equipment will be sent to Ukraine<\/a>, while officials in Moscow officials dismissed his threat of sanctions against Russia as hot air.<\/p>\n

In a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the White House, Trump said the US would send Patriot anti-aircraft batteries and interceptor missiles, paid for by European allies.<\/p>\n

He promised that additional Patriot systems would arrive within days, funded by Germany and other Nato partners, which would be a significant step in helping Ukraine to defend itself. Kyiv is believed to have only six functioning Patriot batteries.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressed gratitude to Trump on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am grateful to President Trump for his readiness to support the protection of our people\u2019s lives,\u201d Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy also said he had had a \u201cproductive\u201d discussion in Kyiv with Keith Kellogg, Trump\u2019s special representative to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Andrii Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine\u2019s national security and defence council, earlier summed up the positive response from Zelenskyy\u2019s government in a one-word reaction: \u201cCool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others acknowledged that Ukraine\u2019s relations with Washington had signally improved since Zelenskyy\u2019s disastrous meeting with Trump in the Oval Office in February.<\/p>\n

But there was also scepticism that the new package \u2013 coupled with the threat of sanctions on the Russian economy in 50 days\u2019 time \u2013 would be enough to persuade Moscow to stop fighting. One former Ukrainian military officer said it was unlikely to make a meaningful impression on the Kremlin, or act as a strong deterrent.<\/p>\n

The independent MP Mariana Bezuhla \u2013 a prominent critic of Zelenskyy and his top military team \u2013 dismissed the announcement as an empty \u201cgame\u201d. \u201cTrump gave Putin another 50 days to seize Ukraine,\u201d she posted on social media.<\/p>\n

Referring to cities in the east of the country, where Russian troops are advancing, she said: \u201cWell, then, let\u2019s see, carte blanche, so to speak. To the Dnipro or Kramatorsk \u2013 everything is so appetising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian officials and pro-war bloggers largely dismissed Trump\u2019s threats, portraying them as far less serious than anticipated.<\/p>\n

Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian lawmaker, wrote on Telegram that the US president\u2019s ultimatum amounted to \u201chot air\u201d, suggesting he could easily walk it back. \u201cA lot can change in 50 days \u2013 on the battlefield and in the mindset of those in power, both in the US and in Nato,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Yuri Podolyaka, a popular pro-Kremlin military blogger, similarly wrote on Telegram that Trump \u201ccould change his \u2018opinion\u2019 several times in the next 50 days\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Podolyaka and other commentators pointed to the main Moscow stock index, which gained more than 2.5% after Trump\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

The shift in tone stood in stark contrast to the earlier anxiety in Moscow, where state media had speculated that Trump might announce the delivery of long-range missiles capable of reaching the Russian capital.<\/p>\n

Some voices in Moscow, however, lamented that Trump\u2019s once-positive relationship with Putin may have fundamentally shifted. \u201cA new reality on Ukraine began today with Trump\u2019s statement,\u201d said Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin commentator. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs of today, he\u2019s pressuring only Russia and supporting Ukraine,\u201d he wrote on Telegram.<\/p>\n

In Ukraine, there was frustration that it had taken the Trump administration<\/a> nearly six months to agree to send substantial military support, at a time when Ukrainian cities were under heavy fire. Russia pounded Kyiv in a seven-hour attack last week, killing two people, and dispatched a record 741 drones and ballistic missiles across the country.<\/p>\n

The journalist and blogger Illia Ponomarenko suggested Trump had allowed himself to be deceived in his dealings with Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many Ukrainian lives could have been saved if, from the very beginning, Trump had listened to wise and honest people about helping Ukraine, instead of the artful lies of that cannibal Putin on the phone?\u201d he wrote. Rather, Trump had believed he could \u2018\u201cachieve peace\u2019 by indulging and encouraging the aggressor\u2019s appetite\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Politicians in Kyiv have welcomed Donald Trump\u2019s announcement that billions of dollars worth of US military equipment will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-265032","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-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265032","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=265032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}