President Donald Trump has stated that America's NATO allies will be required to pay the full cost for US-made weapons while hinting that some of those arms may eventually be transferred to Ukraine.
As is well known, Trump has long pushed European NATO members to take on greater defense const-sharing burden, and in new remarks given to NBC published Friday he said "We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons." He emphasized, "NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%."
He went on to preview that once the weapons are purchased by NATO allies, "then NATO is going to be giving those weapons" to Ukraine. He described that the deal was struck in June at the NATO summit in the Netherlands:
"We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%. So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons," Trump said.
Another very interesting part of the interview came when he teased a major Russia-related announcement planned for Monday.
Could it be new sanctions, which Ukraine's Zelensky and others have been aggressively lobbying for?
"I’m disappointed in Russia, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks," Trump said. "I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday," he added without elaborating.
As for new weapons systems for Ukraine, a fresh Reuters report has said this could total up to $300 million in new arms. Alarmingly, the Pentagon has been running low on its own stockpiles, with Patriot missiles in particular in short supply and high demand, and slow to replace.
Secretary of Defense Marco Rubio told reporters while in Malaysia this week of the Patriots, "Well, the Spaniards have them. They’re really far from Ukraine and they have one. The Germans have, others have them — I’m not singling them out, but I’m just telling you those are two that I know."
"There are other Patriot batteries, and there are other opportunities," he added.
"Countries that have ordered Patriot batteries that are about to receive shipments of them, it’d be great if one of them volunteered to defer that shipment and send it to Ukraine instead," Rubio said.
Rubio has been teasing a 'new' approach and potential strategy toward resolving the Russia-Ukraine war, after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week.
