US to send 'more weapons' to Ukraine: Trump
President Donald Trump said Monday the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine, after Russia claimed new gains in its grinding war against its neighbour.
Trump's announcement followed Washington saying last week that it was halting some weapons shipments to Kyiv, leaving Ukrainian officials caught off guard and scrambling for clarity.
A pause poses a potentially serious challenge for Kyiv, which is contending with some of Russia's largest missile and drone attacks of the more than three-year war.
"We're going to have to send more weapons -- defensive weapons primarily," Trump told journalists at the White House.
"They're getting hit very, very hard," he said of Ukraine, while adding that he was "not happy" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has shown little willingness to end the conflict despite pressure from Trump.
The US president's pledge to ship more arms to Ukraine came after Moscow said Monday that its forces captured its first village in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region after advancing towards it for months.
Russia launched a fresh large-scale drone and missile barrage before the announcement, including on Ukraine's military recruitment centres.
Kyiv also said it carried out a drone attack on a Russian ammunition factory in the Moscow region.
- 'Difficult' situation -
Russia said its forces captured the village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an important industrial mining territory that has come under mounting Russian air attacks.
Last month, Moscow said its forces had crossed the border into the Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in its campaign.
Russian forces appear to have made crossing the regional border a key strategic objective in recent months, and deeper advances there could pose logistical and economic problems for Ukraine.
Kyiv has so far denied any Russian foothold in Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukraine's military said earlier Monday its forces "repelled" attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, including "in the vicinity" of Dachne.
Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea -- that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.
Describing the situation in Dnipropetrovsk as "difficult" for Kyiv's forces, Ukrainian military expert Oleksiy Kopytko said Russia hopes to create some kind of buffer zone in the region.
"Our troops are holding their ground quite steadily," he told AFP.
- Counting on partners -
The White House said last week that it was halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under Trump's predecessor Joe Biden, without providing details on which weapons programmes were affected.
It said the decision was taken after a review of US defence needs and of its military assistance to foreign countries.
Kyiv has long feared halts to US aid after Trump returned to the White House in January, having criticised the tens of billions of dollars in support and weapons sent by Biden.
Under the Biden administration, Washington committed to providing more than $65 billion in military assistance to Ukraine.
Trump has announced no new military aid packages for Kyiv since taking office for the second time.
The Republican president instead has pushed the two sides into peace talks, including in phone calls with Putin. The Russian leader has rejected pleas for a ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory if it wants an end to the war.
Ahead of Trump's remarks on Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said air defence remained the "top priority for protecting lives", and his country was counting on partners to "fully deliver on what we have agreed".
Explosions were heard overnight to Tuesday in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on Telegram, adding that the "threat of drones" was ongoing.
Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaliy Kim said a fire broke out in the city's outskirts due to shelling and a 51-year-old man was wounded.
dk/wd/sco/rsc
Originally published as US to send 'more weapons' to Ukraine: Trump
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News AU
34 minutes ago
- Sky News AU
Donald Trump says he is ‘not happy' with Vladimir Putin
US President Donald Trump says he is not happy with Russian President Vladimir Putin and is considering imposing additional sanctions on Russia. Speaking at a meeting of his cabinet, the American President told reporters he's fed up with Putin's handling of the war in Ukraine. "I'm not happy with Putin – I can tell you that much right now because he is killing a lot of people, and a lot of them are his soldiers," Mr Trump said.
ABC News
37 minutes ago
- ABC News
Donald Trump flags tariffs of 200pc on pharmaceuticals, 50pc on copper
Donald Trump has flagged a possible 200 per cent tariff on pharmaceuticals — one of Australia's biggest exports to the US — but says manufacturers will be given time to move to America to dodge the tax. The US president also said copper was likely to be hit with a 50 per cent tariff. To date, pharmaceuticals and copper have both been exempt from the US's ever-evolving tariffs regime, pending two separate investigations by the Department of Commerce. But Mr Trump has long railed against American dependence on foreign producers of the products, given the lifesaving nature of many imported medicines and copper's importance to the industrial sector and technological innovation. Speaking to the media before a cabinet meeting, Mr Trump said pharmaceutical producers would get a grace period to move production to the US. "We're going to give [drug manufacturers] about a year, a year and a half to come in, and after that, they're going to be tariffed," he said. "They're going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200 per cent. We'll give them a certain period of time to get their act together." Pharmaceutical tariffs could be particularly punishing for Australia. Last year, Australia exported $US1.4 billion ($2.2 billion) in pharmaceutical products to the US, according to the UN's Comtrade database. That was more than 40 per cent of its total pharmaceutical export value of $US3.2 billion ($4.9 billion). Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later suggested a final decision on pharmaceutical tariffs had not been made. His department's investigation into pharmaceutical imports would be completed at the end of the month, he said. "And so the president will then set his policies," Mr Lutnick told business network CNBC. "And I'm going to let him wait to decide how he's going to do it. "He said, if you don't build in America, they're going to be a high rate. But he may consider that if you're building in America, to give you the time to build … and then the tariff will be much higher." Copper is also a significant export product for Australia, but sales to the US last year were valued at just $US36 million ($55 million) — less than 1 per cent of Australia's total copper exports, which were valued at $US4.4 billion ($6.7 billion). "Today, we're doing copper," Mr Trump said after speaking through some of his past tariff announcements. "I believe the tariff on copper, we're going to make it 50 per cent." Mr Lutnick said the copper tariff would probably take effect at the end of July or start of August. Aluminium and steel are already subject to 50 per cent tariffs. The announcements come a day after Mr Trump released letters he had sent to foreign leaders, which outlined new country-specific tariffs to take effect on August 1. Australia, however, is not expecting an increase in the 10 per cent tariff already imposed on its exports. On Monday, the Productivity Commission released modelling that projected Australia could enjoy a small economic benefit from Mr Trump's tariffs. But the commission also warned that an escalating global trade war would be "very bad for Australia".
Perth Now
an hour ago
- Perth Now
Trump gives Ukraine more arms, floats Russia sanctions
President Donald Trump says he has approved sending US defensive weapons to Ukraine and is considering additional sanctions on Moscow, underscoring his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the growing death toll in Russia's war with Ukraine. Trump, who pledged as a presidential candidate to end the war within a day, has not been able to follow through on that promise and efforts by his administration to broker peace have come up short. Trump directed his ire at Putin on Tuesday during a meeting with cabinet officials at the White House. "I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now," Trump said, noting that Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were dying in the thousands. "This is killing a lot of people. "We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin. ... He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless." Trump said he was considering whether to support a bill in the Senate that would impose steep sanctions on Russia over the war. "I'm looking at it very strongly," he said. The bill, whose lead sponsors are Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, would also punish other countries that trade with Moscow, imposing 500 per cent tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. Trump said on Monday that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine, primarily defensive ones, to help it defend itself against Russian advances. On Tuesday he said he had approved such a move. "We're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I've approved that," he said. A decision by the Pentagon to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine prompted warnings by Kyiv last week that the move would weaken its ability to defend against Russia's intensifying air strikes and battlefield advances. Trump, who was seated next to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was asked on Tuesday who had ordered that pause. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?" Trump responded. with AP
