Abu Sabet: President Trump said Monday he had brokered a deal to send more weapons to Ukraine without burdening the U.S., while threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with new sanctions if there is no deal to end the war in 50 days.
Trump’s announcement marks a potential turning point for a president who had wanted to pull U.S. support from Ukraine and has repeatedly demonstrated favorable treatment to Putin despite Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
Under the deal, weapons would be sourced from NATO allies in Europe that just agreed to step up their defense spending at a summit Trump hailed as a success. Here’s what to know about the deal.
Trump and NATO sourcing weapons for Ukraine
Trump announced last week that he had struck a deal for NATO to purchase weapons from the U.S. to send to Ukraine.
He said Monday that these systems would include Patriot missile defense batteries critical for Ukraine to guard its skies under increasing Russian bombardment.
“It’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement with the batteries,” Trump said, adding that the batteries could arrive in Ukraine within days.
“They’re paying for everything. We’re not paying anymore,” Trump said.
A top German military official told reporters in Kyiv last week that Berlin was in negotiations for weeks with the U.S. over the potential purchase and transfer of a Patriot missile battery.
The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is the arm of the organization that handles acquisitions and logistics support and can be used to purchase and deliver the weapons for Ukraine.
The agency employs about 1,550 staff and oversees more than 2,500 contractors in NATO’s missions across the world, according to NATO’s website.
Another avenue NATO allies can use to procure weapons for Ukraine is purchasing them directly with the U.S. on a bilateral basis, with NATO helping to facilitate such transactions.
“We’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to NATO. NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries where we can get a little additional speed, where the country will release something and be it’ll be mostly in the form of a replacement,” Trump said.
What weapons systems will be included?
There’s little information on what exact weapons systems Trump is greenlighting for countries to purchase or what is being prioritized.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers at the NATO summit last month that in addition to Patriots, the country needs additional long-range weapons.
“But beyond that, I haven’t heard any specifics from this administration,” she said in a call with reporters.
Trump acknowledged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had paused weapons shipments to Ukraine as part of a review of Pentagon stockpiles, despite reports the president was caught off-guard when weapons to Ukraine were halted July 1.
“What Pete was doing, and me too, I knew what Pete was doing, was evaluation, because we knew this was going to happen,” Trump said, referring to the NATO procurement deal. “So we did a little bit of a pause.”
Drawdown authority
The U.S. still has $3.86 billion worth of presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine as part of appropriations provided by Congress. This allows for the U.S. to send weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles and use the money to purchase backfills.
Former President Biden last provided a drawdown worth $500 billion on Jan. 9. Politico reported last week that Trump is considering a drawdown package for Ukraine.
The moves are likely to rankle Trump’s MAGA base, which oppose the U.S. sending weapons and military aid abroad.
“We do not want to give or sell weapons to Ukraine or be involved in any foreign wars or continue the never ending flow of foreign aid,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted Monday on the social platform X.
NATO leader Mark Rutte gets a win
Trump made his latest remarks in the Oval Office following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a staunch supporter of Ukraine.
“Dear Donald, this is really big,” said Rutte, who has demonstrated a unique ability to both flatter and cajole Trump to the side of Europe.
“You called me on Thursday that you had taken a decision. And the decision is you want Ukraine — what it needs to have to maintain to defend itself against Russia, but you want Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical, and this is building on the tremendous success of the NATO summit,” he said.
Trump threatens Putin with tariffs amid rising frustration
Trump gave Putin a 50-day deadline to reach a deal over Ukraine or risk being hit with a 100 percent tariff on exports to the U.S.
“The country’s economy is going very poorly, and he’s got to get his economy back. He’s got to save his economy,” Trump said.
But Trump raised doubt over his support for a Republican-led sanctions bill on Russia that has 85 cosponsors. Trump suggested the sanctions bill might not be needed; he is meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) later Monday.
Still, Trump has increasingly expressed frustration with Putin and identified him as the obstacle to peace, after months of trying to reorient the U.S. as a neutral mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.
Rutte said Trump’s outreach to Putin in the initial days of his administration served to “break the deadlock” and start the conversation over whether peace was possible.
“You have to test him, and you did this, and you really gave him a chance to be serious to get to the table to start negotiations,” Rutte said.
Trump said, “We probably had, four times, a deal,” but that Putin’s talk “didn’t mean anything.”
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” Trump said of his dealings with Putin.
“He’s fooled a lot of people. … Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn’t fool me,” he said, referring to former U.S. presidents. “But what I do say is that at a certain point, ultimately, talk doesn’t talk. It’s got to be action. It’s got to be results.”
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