Halted military aid for Ukraine may start flowing again
That call came a day after Trump spoke with Putin, a conversation the president indicated did not go well.
He was 'very unhappy' with the Putin call , he told reporters over the weekend. 'It just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people. It's not good. I wasn't happy with it.'
In contrast, he indicated that the call with Zelenskyy was more productive, and suggested that more weapons could soon be on the way. When asked about supplying more Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine — which were stopped under orders from the Pentagon — Trump replied, 'Yeah, we might … they're going to need something because they're being hit pretty hard.'
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the aid stoppage wasn't permanent, portraying it as 'a pause, to review, to ensure that everything the Pentagon is pushing out there is in the best interests of our military and our men and women in uniform.'
Some of the weapons denied to Ukraine included 8,400 155mm artillery rounds, 142 Hellfire missiles, and 252 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System missiles, which can precisely hit targets up to 50 miles away.
Most significantly, the halted shipment also included 30 Patriot missiles used for shooting down Russian missiles and drones, which have been pounding apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Kyiv.
'The air defense munitions — the Patriots — are obviously the big one because Russia is producing so many UAVs that are becoming harder to hit with Ukraine's mobile air defenses,' said Rob Lee, who studies the Russia-Ukraine war for the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
'Russia is actually targeting the defense industry, and sometimes they have success and they destroy factories, so providing air defense systems is important because it also helps Ukraine produce its own munitions so it can sustain the fight itself,' Lee added.
The stepped-up Russian attacks killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including children, Ukrainian officials said Monday. Over the past week, Russia launched at least 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and 1,000 glide bombs at different areas of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said Monday.
Eli Stoklos contributed reporting.
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