Washington (TDI): The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has announced that the US will be sending more defensive weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian aggression.
Talking to the reporters at the White House at the start of a dinner hosted for the Israeli Prime Minister, the US President said, “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves.”
“They’re getting hit very hard now, we’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily,” he said.
On Monday, the US Department of Defense released a statement, which stated, “At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”
“Our framework for POTUS to evaluate military shipments across the globe remains in effect and is integral to our America First defense priorities,” the statement further read.
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Last week, President Trump announced that Ukraine would require Patriot missiles to be able to defend itself, however, he did not mention the time and the quantity of the missiles that Ukraine would need to protect itself from Russian attacks.
Trump’s Monday announcement and the statement of the US Department of Defense’s statement did not include any mentions of Patriot missiles.
During Friday’s telephone conversation between President Trump and President Zelenskyy, the latter told the US President that he had been working on increasing Kyiv’s capability to “defend the sky” amid the escalation of Russian violence.
Both leaders also discussed the possibility of joint defense production, defense purchases, and investments.
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Responding to the news, Russia’s Kremlin stated that it will take time to clarify what weapons the US will send to Ukraine.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said that there were many contradicting news circulating about the US’ weapon supplies to Ukraine, however, it was clear that the European leaders have been sending more weapons to Ukraine.
Russia, which has been advancing on several locations in Ukraine and has increased the offensive recently, now holds just about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory.
Javaria Khalid is a writer and researcher, who specializes in Pakistan's Foreign Policy Analysis, transatlantic geopolitics, and Pakistan’s relations with the European countries and the EU. She can be reached at javariakhalid011@outlook.com
