Trump set to approve new Ukraine aid as Putin feud deepens
President Donald Trump was scheduled for a new assistance package for Ukraine besieged on Monday while his apparent quarrel with the Russian strong man Vladimir Putin is deepened.
As Trump has met the Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, the president had to send defensive and offensive weapons to kyiv in what seems to be an important change in his approach to the three -year Russian invasion.
Trump was unleashed in Putin late Sunday in a sign that he finally lost patience with the Kremlin double speech after six months of inaction.
“I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was someone who meant what he had said,” Trump said late on Sunday. “He will speak so well and then he will bomb people at night. We don’t like it. “
Trump last week teased a “major statement” on Russia expected later on Monday. Administration officials say that it plans to send new Patriotic anti -missile defense systems and other weapons, mainly channeled by European and NATO allies.
NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, was to be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday for interviews with Trump, the defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as members of the Congress.
Trump quickly arrested the war one of his diplomatic priorities, even saying several times that he could end the fighting in one day. But Putin stubbornly snubbed her ceasefire requests that could lead to peace talks.
Kremlin observers say Trump has played in Putin’s hands by giving up several Russian requests, as conceded that Ukraine should give up large area of territory seized by Russia, without obtaining concessions in return.
The special envoy to Ukraine has retired the lieutenant-general Keith Kellogg met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in kyiv on Monday, while anticipation increased on a possible change.
Zelenskyy said the talks went well, in a sign that he turned the page on a nasty spit with Trump in the White House last winter which led the president to briefly cut the aid.
“We hope the leaders of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will only stop except if … The ambitions are arrested by force,” said Zelenskyy on the Social Media Telegram.
Russia has launched a major offensive in spring and summer, seeking to repel the Ukrainian troops along the front lines in the region in the east of Donbas.
Putin also thwarted Trump by accelerating drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets, apparently ignoring her call at the end of the fighting.
