President Donald Trump on Monday said the United States would resume providing weapons to Ukrainian defense forces because the country was being slammed by ongoing Russian aerial attacks, just days after the Pentagon halted shipments to review whether current stockpiles were sufficient for American defense needs.
Speaking during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of their respective staffs, Trump was asked if he planned to sent more weapons for use by Kyiv.
He replied affirmatively, telling reporters: “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 they’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard,” he said before adding that “so many people” were “dying in that mess.”
The presidents comments came less than a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told ABC News that his forces had been counting on promised weapons shipments, including 20,000 anti-drone missiles that the Trump administration diverted to the Middle East.
Zelensky said the missiles in question, which had been pledged by the previous Biden administration, were needed to counter the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Moscow has been raining down on his country en masse.
That diversion, which had been ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, ostensibly to give U.S. and Israeli forces needed arms for a potential war with Iran, was part of a larger pause in aid which Pentagon officials say was prompted by concerns that U.S. stockpiles were getting too low.
At the time, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the decision had been made “to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe.”
The pause mainly held up shipments of American-made Patriot air defense batteries, National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and HAWK air defense systems which Ukraine has sorely needed for air defense — from taking out Russian aircraft in the early days of the conflict to having to defend itself against long-range missiles now.
Defense officials say Kyiv’s need for air defense materiel has been in tension with needs in the Middle East and the reality of American procurement capabilities, citing U.S. forces’ inability to keep enough munitions on hand to sustain a high rate of deliveries while still giving American forces enough to train on while keeping a stockpile on hand for any future wars.
Trump also briefly ordered a halt to shipments after a disastrous Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March but resumed them after Republican lawmakers complained.
With additional reporting by agencies
