(FILES) In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on June 25, 2025, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meets with US President Donald Trump on the sideline of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in The Hague.(AFP)
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“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News late Thursday. “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."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that some of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.
“It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (U.S.) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia .
Ukraine badly needs more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russian ballistic and cruise missiles. The Trump administration has gone back and forth about providing more vital military aid to Ukraine more than three years into Russia's invasion.
After a brief pause in some weapons shipments , Trump said he would keep sending defensive weapons to Ukraine. U.S. officials said this week that some were on their way .
Details still are being worked out on Trump's plan
NATO itself doesn't send weapons to Ukraine or otherwise own or handle arms — that is done by its 32 member nations — but it does coordinate the deliveries of weapons to a logistics hub in Poland, bordering Ukraine. The alliance itself ships items like medical supplies and fuel.
“Allies continue to work to ensure that Ukraine has the support they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression," NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said. "This includes urgent efforts to procure key supplies from the United States, including air defense and ammunition.”
Germany, Spain and other European countries possess Patriot missile systems, and some have placed orders for more, Rubio said.
The U.S. is encouraging its NATO allies to provide "the defensive systems that Ukraine seeks … since they have them in their stocks, and then we can enter into financial agreements with them, with us, where they can purchase the replacements,” Rubio said.
A senior NATO military official said Trump spoke to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte about the plan but noted that the details were “still being worked out.”
U.S. weapons already in Europe could be transferred to Ukraine under Trump’s proposal, as could American-made weapons previously purchased by allies.
“NATO has effective mechanisms in place to make something like this possible,” the official said.
A senior European defense official said it was their understanding that European nations would purchase U.S. weapons for Ukraine under the plan.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Ukraine is seeking more coveted Patriot air defense systems
Russia has recently sought to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses by launching major aerial attacks. This week, Russia fired more than 700 attack and decoy drones at Ukraine, topping previous barrages for the third time in two weeks.
Ukraine has asked other countries to supply it with an additional 10 Patriot systems and missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday. Germany is ready to provide two systems, and Norway has agreed to supply one, he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that officials “stand ready to acquire additional Patriot systems from the U.S. and make them available to Ukraine.”
Asked how many Patriot systems Germany is interested in buying, Merz didn’t give a number. But he said he spoke to Trump a week ago “and asked him to deliver these systems.”
In addition to the Patriots, the weaponry that could be sold to NATO members includes advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, shorter-range missiles and Howitzer rounds, according to a person familiar with the internal White House debate. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking more details.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has been in touch with Trump in recent days, said it’s in U.S. national security interests to sell weapons to Ukraine, and “Europe can pay for them.”
“We have the best weapons. They sure as hell know how to use them,” Graham said in an AP interview in Rome while attending a meeting on the sidelines of a Ukraine recovery conference.
Allies purchasing U.S. weapons for Ukraine would get around a possible stalemate in funding for Kiev once an aid package approved last year runs out. Even with broad support in Congress for backing Ukraine, it’s unclear if more funding would be approved.
Trump's evolving stance on Putin
Trump's efforts to facilitate Ukraine's weapon supply come as he has signaled his displeasure with Russian President Vladimir Putin. At a Cabinet meeting this week, he said he was “not happy” with Putin over a conflict that was “killing a lot of people” on both sides.
Russia’s bigger army is pressing hard on parts of the 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) front line, where thousands of soldiers on both sides have died since the Kremlin ordered the invasion in February 2022.
Graham says Trump has given him the go-ahead to push forward with a bill he’s co-sponsoring that calls, in part, for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil. Trump said Tuesday that he’s “looking at it very strongly.”
In the NBC News interview, Trump teased that he will make a major announcement on Russia next week.
The U.S. president also has had a tumultuous relationship with Zelensky, which reached a low point during an Oval Office blowup in February when Trump berated him for being “disrespectful.” The relationship has since shown signs of rebounding.
The two leaders spoke by phone last week about Ukraine's air defenses. Zelensky said Thursday that talks with Trump have been “very constructive.”
Impact of the latest Russian attacks
In the latest attacks, a Russian drone barrage targeted the center of Kharkiv just before dawn Friday, injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said.
“There is no silence in Ukraine,” Zelensky said. A daytime drone attack on the southern city of Odesa also injured nine.
Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, has endured repeated and intensifying drone attacks in recent weeks, as have many other regions of the country, mostly at night.
Zelensky urged Ukraine’s Western partners to quickly follow through on pledges they made at the international meeting in Rome on Thursday. Ukraine needs more interceptor drones to bring down Russian-made Shahed drones , he said.
Authorities said Friday that they're establishing a comprehensive drone interception system under a project called Clear Sky. It includes a $6.2 million investment in interceptor drones, operator training and new mobile response units, the Kiev Military Administration said.
“We found a solution. ... That’s the key,” Zelensky said. “We need financing. And then, we will intercept.”
Trump says Ukraine's Nato allies to pick up arms bill from now on
US allies have agreed to pick up the bill for arming Ukraine from now on, US President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on July 11.
"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," he said in an interview with NBC News.
He added that the deal was reached at a Nato summit last month.
Trump’s announcement effectively takes the US out of the war in Ukraine and drops the responsibility for supplying Kyiv into Europe’s lap. Last week, the Pentagon announced that it was halting all new weapons deliveries, a decision that Trump reversed this week but so far he has committed a mere 10 Patriot interceptor rockets to Ukraine, not enough to protect a single Ukrainian city from even one day of Russian missile attacks. And Russia has launched an intensifying missile war on Ukraine since the devastating missile barrage began in May, a day after a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the US president said “no progress” had been made on ending the conflict.
In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration with Putin over the lack of progress towards ending the war and made some of his most pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia comments, since taking office in January.
Nevertheless, Trump has flip-flopped on restarting weapons deliveries to Ukraine. This week he said that deliveries would resume, but details on when and how many missiles will be sent remain vague.
So far, the only concrete report by Axios says Trump has ordered the delivery of a mere ten Patriot interceptor missiles, not batteries, to Ukraine and he is pressuring Germany to sell one of its Patriot batteries to Ukraine.
Typically, it takes two Patriot rockets to bring down one Russian missile. Zelenskiy said that on July 9, Russia fired a total of 18 missiles at Ukraine. Ten interceptor rockets are enough to bring down only a third of the missiles Russia is firing on a single day of the conflict over just one city.
For Kyiv, the bottom line has become that its wealthiest and most powerful military and economic sponsor is pulling out of the conflict and leading Kyiv to go it alone. Despite Europe’s promises of money and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s ReArm speech to ramp up European defence production, currently only the US can provide key high-tech weaponry such as Patriots and HIMARS rocket artillery.
What Trump decides to do and how the weapons purchase deals by the EU are implemented will be crucial to Ukraine’s war effort. Any lengthy delays will leave Ukraine’s skies open just as a major Russian summer offensive gets under way.
“It was a temporary pause for review, not a policy decision to stop aid to Ukraine. The Pentagon evaluates stockpiles, especially after events like in the Middle East. Aid continues, but some shipments were briefly delayed during the review — not cancelled,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking at an ASEAN summit in Malaysia on July 10.
“Most US military aid to Ukraine continues on schedule. The real issue is limited production in the West. Ukraine needs more Patriot batteries, but EU countries with unused systems aren’t sharing. If Ukraine’s a priority, that must change,” said Rubio.
Currently, Ukraine is receiving arms from commitments made under the outgoing Biden administration, but these allocations are expected to run out in the summer. Trump has made no new commitments since taking over.
EU picking up the bill
Zelenskiy identified Germany and Norway as taking the lead on picking up the US arms bill, mentioning specifically they will buy three Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine from a US manufacturer, up for the previously mooted two European-supplied systems mentioned by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier this month.
"We are having a concrete dialogue with the US. Germany is ready – we have an agreement that they will buy two systems for Ukraine. As for Norway, I have a bilateral agreement – they will pay for one system," Zelenskiy said speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) event in Rome on July 10.
Zelenskiy said that Ukraine needs a minimum of ten Patriot systems and his team is currently working to secure funding for the remaining ones. Previously Bankova has called for a total of 22 Patriot systems to fully protect all of Ukraine’s main cities from Russian missile attack.
What remains unclear is when the new systems will be delivered. US production capacity is limited and demand for Patriot interceptor ammunition is currently extremely high. Merz announced that the two batteries it is sending to Ukraine are actually a redirection of Patriots it ordered earlier that are due for delivery in early 2026. To replace them Germany has put in a new order for Patriots, but these won’t be delivered until 2028, according to reports.
Zelenskiy was unclear when the three new EU-sponsored Patriot systems will be available, but made it clear it was an order for new systems.
"Once the manufacturer provides details on possible delivery timelines, I believe other partners will join in as well,” Zelenskiy said.
Rubio said at a press conference after his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the same day that the US would try to persuade Nato allies to transfer Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine.
Europe to pick up the bill
Zelenskiy has said that during talks within the coalition of the willing held in the parallel Ukraine Recovery Conference (UKR2025) being held in Rome, the possibility of purchasing additional weapons for Ukraine was discussed.
“Four months have passed since Ukraine agreed to a full, unconditional ceasefire. In this time, Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine's civilian population, killing more than 700 and injuring over 3,500 in the most intense air strikes of the invasion to date. The Leaders called on Russia to end attacks against civilians, and to commit to a full and unconditional ceasefire in order to negotiate a just and lasting settlement,” the coalition said in a joint statement.
The coalition reaffirmed the agreement to provide at least €40bn in military support to Ukraine in 2025 to bolster the Security and Defence Forces of Ukraine – matching the commitment made by the Nato Alliance in 2024.
Ukraine will allocate nearly $50bn to defence and security in 2025, amounting to 26% of the country's GDP, but it’s going to need $40bn of external funding this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at the same event. Shmyhal said the Ukrainian government had submitted amendments to the state budget law at the end of June to increase defence spending by almost $10bn.
"We discussed with our partners the possibility of purchasing the necessary weapons packages in Europe and primarily in the US. We’re talking about air defence systems, ammunition, and so on,” Zelenskiy said. We have provided our partners with a list of what we need. We will move forward in this direction.”
Zelenskiy also presented Trump with a wish list during the Nato summit in the Hague earlier this month, which Trump said the Pentagon was studying.
Zelenskiy also reported that Germany is holding "intensive negotiations" with the US regarding the provision of Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine.
“It’s time to assess the interim results of our ‘special diplomatic operation’. There have now been six presidential phone calls, several rounds of talks between foreign ministers and national security aides, and sustained contact at other levels. The most obvious positive outcome is the restoration of dialogue between Russia and the United States – a process that had been severed under the Biden administration,” said Dmitry Trenin, a research professor at the Higher School of Economics and a lead research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations.
“On the military front, Trump will deliver the remaining aid packages approved under Biden, and perhaps supplement them with modest contributions of his own. But going forward, it will be Western Europe – especially Germany – that supplies Ukraine, often by buying US-made systems and re-exporting them,” Trenin added.
Lack of production
In the drone war, Kyiv is going much better. During the URC2025 Zelenskiy warned that Russia was getting ready to send 1,000 drones a day against Ukraine during the current campaign, but added that after Ukraine ramped up its own drone production by a million units a year in the last year, Kyiv was “ready” to counter the onslaught.
"Russia wants to launch 1,000 drones. But we will intercept them all. There are solutions – interceptor drones. If our partners take in everything I’ve shared and funding is allocated accordingly, we will be able to do it,” Zelenskiy said at URC2025, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
Zelenskyy stated several manufacturers have already confirmed that they possess effective technology capable of countering Shahed drones.
"We have found a solution – we as a country. There are four Ukrainian companies and one US-Ukrainian company that produce the necessary drones. What we need now is to scale up production,” he said.
While Ukraine has managed to keep pace with Russia’s investment into drone manufacturing, it remains hopelessly behind in missile production – a function of the 70-year-long Cold War nuclear arms race. Ukraine now produces a handful of missiles such as the sea-launched Neptune that was used to devastating effect to sink Russia's Black Sea Fleet flagship the Moskva in the first year of the war, but has little in its arsenal other than that.
According to recent reports, Russia produced 1,200 missiles last year, enough to fire three a day, after Putin put the whole Russian economy on a war footing in the first year of the war. Neither Ukraine or Europe produce the crucial Patriot systems that are the only defence against Russia’s increasingly sophisticated and powerful missile arsenal. Patriots is made exclusively by Raytheon Technologies, now operating under RTX Corporation, which is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia in the US.
But even the US production of Patriots is limited. American promises have been outrunning American supply lines for all the munitions it has been supplying its allies. At the start of the war in 2022, the US sent one million artillery shells to Ukraine, but its annual production was only 100,000 a year, which has been increased since then, but not the levels needed by Ukraine. In late 2023, the US redirected tens of thousands of 155-millimeter artillery shells allocated for Ukraine to Israel. And in early June during the 12-day war, 20,000 anti-drone missiles (APKWS) were diverted to the Middle East to protect US troops from potential Iranian retaliation. Now the US has run down its stock of air defence ammo to only 25% of its strategic needs, according to The Guardian, after resupplying Israel following its recent conflict with Iran. US Secretary for Defence Pete Hegseth’s assessment that US stocks of weapons are running too low appears to be correct.
“The American military-industrial base is simply not producing fast enough, and the consequences for American policy — and American allies — are serious.,” says Michael Brendan Dougherty is a senior writer at National Review and the William F Buckley senior scholar at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in an opinion piece in UnHerd.
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