The United States is sending weapons to Ukraine through NATO, US President Donald Trump said on July 10, a week after the Pentagon said some weapons deliveries to the war-torn country were being paused.
Trump also said he would make a "major statement" on Russia on July 14. He did not elaborate on what the statement would be but provided an explanation about the supply of US weapons.
"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," Trump said, speaking in an interview with US broadcaster NBC.
Earlier this week Trump said he would release some defensive weapons designated for Ukraine following negative responses from some members of Congress about a Pentagon announcement on July 2 that some weapons designated for Ukraine would be halted over concerns that US stockpiles have declined too much.
Trump appeared to reverse that policy on July 8 when he said that the United States would be sending defensive weapons to Ukraine amid intensifying Russian advances. He also expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he is considering imposing new sanctions on Moscow.
Trump has said he is studying a bill sponsored by Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican-South Carolina) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat-Connecticut) that would impose sanctions and tariffs on countries that support Russia’s war effort in addition to targeting Russia’s banking system.
"I think I'll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday," Trump said in the interview.
Later on July 11, Keith Kellogg, the US special representative, told Ukrainian media that he will visit Ukraine starting on July 14 and plans to stay for the entire week. It was unclear whether Kellogg's visit is tied to Trump's announced "major statement."
As Trump spoke, at least one person was killed and 14 others injured in a Russian drone strike on Ukraine's Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials reported early on July 11. The attack also partly damaged a maternity hospital in the regional capital, Kharkiv, regional administrator Oleh Synyehubov said.
The Kremlin had no immediate comment. Russian officials accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on Russia’s Tula region, killing one person.
Local Telegram channels suggested the Ukrainian drones may have also targeted the Kronshtadt drone factory, located in the neighboring Moscow region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 9 addressed a conference in Rome on Ukraine's reconstruction, urging allies to "more actively" use Russian assets for rebuilding and calling for weapons, joint defense production, and investment.
Zelenskyy said he met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the conference, thanking him for participating in the conference and joining the European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, which raised billions of dollars in pledges from conference attendees.
"It is important that Poland continues to remain a key logistics and transit hub for international assistance to Ukraine," Zelenskyy said on Telegram.
Earlier on July 10, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he reinforced the message that Moscow should show more flexibility in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Malaysia.
"We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude," Rubio said, adding that the Trump administration had been engaging with the US Senate on what new sanctions on Russia might look like.
"It was a frank conversation. It was an important one," Rubio said after the talks in Kuala Lumpur, where the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping are meeting. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Rubio and Lavrov had shared "a substantive and frank exchange of views."
Rubio said the US strategy to end the war in Ukraine is to continue to engage all the parties involved.
“We will engage anytime that we have an opportunity to do so, like we did today,” Rubio told reporters. “The president’s been pretty clear. He’s disappointed and frustrated that there’s not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict.”
Rubio said the Pentagon announcement about weapons sent to Ukraine had been mischaracterized, and the overwhelming majority of the military aid that the United States provides to Ukraine has never been paused.
He acknowledged that Ukraine needs more Patriot systems and said some are “available in multiple countries in Europe, yet no one wants to part with them.” He said he hoped that would change.
“Countries that have ordered Patriot batteries that are about to receive shipments of them, it would be great if one of them volunteered to defer that shipment and send it to Ukraine instead,” Rubio said.
He also noted that Russia has lost 100,000 soldiers since January, emphasizing that they were killed, not injured. Ukraine lost fewer in the same time span. Though the numbers are less, they are still very significant, he said.
