The U.S. will send more Patriot missiles to Ukraine to help in its ongoing war with Russia but the European Union will pay for them, President Donald Trump said Sunday.
“I haven’t agreed on the number yet, but they’re going to have some. Because they do need protection,” Trump said. “But the European Union is paying for it. We’re not paying anything for it. But we will send it, and it’ll be good news for us, we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need.”
Trump plans to meet Monday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss the ongoing war and NATO’s roll in helping defend Ukraine.
“I’m going to have a meeting with the Secretary General coming in tomorrow,” Trump also said Sunday. “But we basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military. And they are going to pay us 100% for them. And that’s the way we want it.”
Trump criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for continuing to bomb Ukraine despite ongoing peace negotiations.
Putin “talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening,” Trump said. “It’s a little bit of a problem there. I don’t like it.”
Trump has been critical of NATO spending on defense but last month he said he got most of the 32 member nations to agree to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP.
