Trump agrees to help NATO arm Ukraine amid frustrations with Putin

John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call on Jul 14, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Monday that NATO members intend to send large amounts of Patriot missile batteries and other weapons to Ukraine, arms they would buy from the United States.

The arrangement could help Trump save some face with his “Make American Great Again” base, which has long opposed sending new U.S.-made and -financed arms to Ukraine. Under the new agreement with NATO, Trump said the U.S. would not spend a penny on any of the new arms going to Kyiv, as his frustrations with Russian President Vladimir Putin swells.

“It’s not my war. I’m trying to get you out of it, and we want to see it end. And I’m disappointed in President Putin, because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn’t seem to get there.” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, seated alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Rutte said he’d been in contact with several countries that would be part of the effort to send arms to Kyiv, including Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada.

“They all want to be part of this. And this is only the first wave. There will be more. So what we will do is work through the NATO systems to make sure that we know what Ukrainians need,” Rutte said. “Of course, the U.S. will keep … stockpiles necessary to defend this country, that’s absolutely clear. But it will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment — both for air defense, but also missiles, ammunition, etc.”

Asked specifically what systems would be going soon to Ukraine, Trump responded: “It’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement, with the [missile] batteries.” On timing of the first new shipments, the U.S. leader said, “Very soon, within days.”

“A couple of the countries that have the Patriots are going to swap over, and we’ll replace the Patriots with the ones they have,” Trump said. “We have one country that has 17 Patriots getting ready to be shipped. They’re not going to need them. … So we’re going to work a deal where the 17 will go, or a big portion of the 17 will go, to the war site.”

Meantime, Trump on Monday threatened to slap a 100% tariff on Russian goods if Moscow does not agree to a deal to end fighting with Ukraine within 50 days.

“We are very unhappy, at least I am, with Russia,” he said in the Oval Office.

Trump asserted he did not need Congress to pass a bipartisan Russia sanctions measure, telling reporters he has the legal authority to hit Moscow with penalties over its conduct of its war with Ukraine. “We can do secondary [sanctions] without the Senate, without the House,” he said.

Trump returned to office vowing to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a swift end and clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February during a tense Oval Office meeting. At that time, the U.S. commander in chief told his Ukrainian counterpart that he had “no cards” to play during talks to potentially end the bloody fighting.

Since then, Trump has grown more frustrated with Putin, telling reporters Sunday at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington: “He’ll talk so beautifully, and then he’ll bomb people at night. We don’t like that.”

‘Not paying anything’

Trump and many congressional Republicans for several years had objected to the Biden administration sending American-made weapons to Ukraine. One of their primary concerns was over the cost of those arms. On Sunday, Trump first revealed he would be sending the Patriot missile systems to Kyiv — but contended that U.S. taxpayers would not be on the hook.

“We’re not paying anything for it, but we will send it,” Trump said under the wing of a loudly idling Air Force One. “We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need.”

The question of whether to resume arms shipments to Ukraine has split congressional Republicans for some time. Over the first five months of Trump’s second term, it appeared the isolationist wing of the party most aligned with his “America First” philosophy would win the debate.

But Trump appears to have drifted toward the GOP’s more hawkish members amid Putin’s brutal conduct of the war — including his continued targeting of residential buildings and medical facilities.

“I’m glad that President Trump wants to resume deliveries of lethal capabilities to Ukraine. America’s policy of providing lethal support to Ukraine began during his first term, and likely helped deter earlier Russian escalation,” Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mitch McConnell said in a statement last week after Trump signaled he was leaning toward arming Ukraine.

“This time, the president will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons,” the Kentucky Republican added. “And he should disregard those at [the Pentagon] who invoke munitions shortages to block aid.”