President Donald Trump is set to meet with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday as the United States warms up to the idea of providing Ukraine with missiles in its war with Russia.
Trump teased a “major announcement” on Monday regarding Russia, and it is expected to be more weapons for Ukraine.
Sources told Axios that the announcement is a new weapons package for Ukraine, including offensive and defensive missiles, which would be a major shift for Trump. The administration paused a defensive missile shipment to Ukraine not long ago, but the president repealed the decision.
The package is likely to include long-range missiles that can strike deeply into Russian territory. Trump has refused to provide these before to avoid escalating problems with Russia.
“Trump is really pissed at Putin. His announcement tomorrow is going to be very aggressive,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said.
The plan, to be revealed in the meeting between Rutte and Trump, will see European countries pay for U.S.-made weapons that will be delivered to Ukraine. It was proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky two weeks ago at the NATO summit.
The plan presumably boosts the U.S. defense industry while Ukraine receives the weapons it desires in its conflict against Russia, which started in 2022. An official suggested Zelensky made a good argument.
“Zelensky came like a normal human being, not crazy, and was dressed like a somebody that should be at NATO. He had a group of people with him that also seemed not crazy. So they had a good conversation,” a U.S. official told Axios.
The likely source of Trump’s renewed vigor to defend Ukraine is his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he once prioritized relations with. Trump is angry with Putin’s decision to press on with the conflict against Ukraine with little willingness to work toward a ceasefire, an objective Trump aspires to achieve in his presidency.
In Putin’s July 3 call with Trump, the Russian leader indicated he had little interest in de-escalation and was pressing forward with the war. Trump said he made “no progress at all” toward ending the war in his call with the leader.
He reportedly told French President Emmanuel Macron after the call that Putin wants to “take all” of Ukraine.
Trump told reporters Sunday that he was sending Ukraine various weapons, including “pieces of very sophisticated” military equipment, such as Patriot air defense batteries. He said European countries “are going to pay us 100% for them. It is going to be business for us.” The president added that he was “disappointed” in Putin for seeking peace before waging an intensifying war.
The president is also considering authorizing new funding for the war, the first time he has done so since reentering office.
There’s hope that the weapons could change the trajectory of the war. Russia launched more aerial attacks last month than at any other point in the conflict, causing the most civilian deaths in the war. Zelensky said that, nevertheless, Russia has underperformed its expectations of the assault.
“We see the enemy’s intentions and attempts to advance, and it is important that each of these attempts is being thwarted thanks to the resilience of our units and active defense,” Zelensky said on Telegram. “The Russian army has fallen far short of its command’s expectations for this summer.”
“Our units will continue to destroy the occupiers and do everything possible to bring the war onto Russian territory. We are preparing new long-range strikes,” Zelensky added.
GRAHAM VOWS ‘RECORD LEVEL’ OF WEAPONS TO UKRAINE AFTER PUTIN TRIED TO ‘PLAY TRUMP’
Graham hopes the “record level” of weapons can push Russia to the negotiating table.
“Putin made a miscalculation here,” Graham said. “For six months, President Trump tried to entice Putin to the table. The attacks have gone up, not down. One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump, and you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there’s going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table.”
