US president says Ukraine must be able to defend itself and is ‘getting hit very hard’.
United States President Donald Trump has said his administration will send more weapons to Ukraine after an earlier decision to halt some arms shipments drew condemnation from Kyiv and its supporters.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC on Monday, Trump said the new shipments would be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump said.
“They are getting hit very hard now.”
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed Trump’s comments later on Monday, saying that Washington would provide “additional defensive weapons” to “ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops”.
Parnell added that Trump would continue to evaluate military shipments overseas in accordance with “our America First defence priorities”.
Trump’s pledge came after Russia announced on Monday that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne, in Dnipropetrovsk, following a months-long push to seize territory in the central region.
The decision also followed the Pentagon’s announcement last week that it would halt deliveries of some weapons, including air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, out of concern that stockpiles were running too low.
After a phone call with Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had agreed with his US counterpart to work to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
“We spoke about opportunities in air defence and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
Trump on Friday described the call as “very good” and said his administration was “looking at” selling more Patriot missiles to Kyiv.
“They need them for defence. I don’t want to see people killed,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.