US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington will send weapons, including Patriot air defence systems, to Ukraine via NATO.
“We’re going to be sending Patriots to NATO and then NATO will distribute that,” Trump told US TV channel CBS News, adding that the alliance would pay for the systems.
The Patriot missile system can detect and intercept a wide range of oncoming air targets, high-end ballistic missiles in particular, and is regarded as one of the world’s best, at a time when Moscow is increasing its nightly missile and drone attacks amid its all-out war against Ukraine, now well into its fourth year.
Speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome on Thursday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Germany would pay for two of the systems, while Norway has agreed to supply one.
Other European partners have also said they are prepared to help, Zelenskyy said.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that some of the US-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are already deployed with NATO allies in Europe.
Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine quickly, with European countries buying replacements from the US, he said.
“It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (US) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur.
Zelenskyy said on Thursday that talks with Trump have been “very constructive,” even though the administration has given conflicting signals about its readiness to provide more vital military support.
A new bipartisan US sanctions package aimed at forcing Russia to the negotiating table could go to a vote in the Senate before the August recess, its backers, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, told the AP on Thursday.
The bill calls for a 500% tariff on goods from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It takes aim at nations such as China and India, which account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
After repeated Russian drone and missile onslaughts on Kyiv, authorities announced on Friday that they are establishing a comprehensive drone interception system under a project called Clear Sky.
The project includes a 260-million-hryvnia (approximately €5.3 million) investment in interceptor drones, operator training, and new mobile response units, according to Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv military administration.
Zelenskyy appealed to foreign partners to help Ukraine accelerate the production of the newly developed interceptor drones, which have proven successful against Iranian-made Shahed drones and their Russian variant, the Geran-2.
“We found a solution, as a country, scientists and engineers found a solution. That’s the key,” he said. “We need financing. And then, we will intercept.”
Strikes on Kharkiv
Meanwhile, a Russian drone barrage targeted the centre of Kharkiv on Friday, injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine’s second-largest city, officials said.
Mothers with newborns were evacuated to a different medical facility, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, but didn’t say whether anyone at the hospital was among the injured.
Russia’s recent escalation of long-range Shahed drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, which often also include ballistic and cruise missiles as well as powerful glide bombs, has brought renewed urgency to efforts to improve Ukraine’s air defences after more than three years of war.
June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the UN human rights mission in Ukraine said on Thursday.
Russia launched 10 times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year, it said.
Russia has reportedly expedited drone production, and Zelenskyy stated that Moscow plans to manufacture up to 1,000 drones per day.
