US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine, saying they are necessary to defend the country because Russian President Vladimir Putin “talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening.” Trump did not give a number of Patriots he plans to send to Ukraine, but he said the United States would be reimbursed for their cost by the European Union.
President Donald Trump on Sunday said the United States would send Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine to help it fight off a Russian invasion, as his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin soured.
“We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need,” Trump said, without specifying how many, just two weeks after Washington said it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv.
“I haven’t agreed on the number yet, but they’re going to have some because they do need protection,” he told reporters.
The weapons delivery will be part of a new deal which Trump says will involve NATO paying the United States for some of the weapons it sends to Ukraine.
“We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military and they’re going to pay us 100 percent for them,” Trump told reporters.
The US president repeated that he was “disappointed” in Putin.
When he first returned to the White House in January Trump insisted he could work with the Russian leader to end the war, but grew increasingly frustrated as Russian missiles continued with no ceasefire in sight.
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