Latest news with #USMilitaryAid
Russia Today
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukraine will have to pay for new Patriots
The administration of US President Donald Trump would be willing to sell Ukraine Patriot air defense systems, the Washington Post has reported, citing officials in Kiev. Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky has increasingly implored Washington to provide more Patriot missiles and units in recent months amid dwindling stockpiles. Kiev believes that the current US administration 'will not give it away for free' but will be ready to sell the billion dollar air defense system and ammunition for it, the WaPo wrote on Monday, citing a senior Ukrainian official. 'They think like business people. If I give you something, you have to give me something in return,' the outlet cited the official as saying. Kiev has mostly requested the air defense systems and missiles as military aid from the Trump administration, 'which, frankly, we don't have,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a Senate meeting last week. Washington is instead pushing for NATO allies to donate the US-made armaments from their own stockpiles, but 'none of these countries want to give up their Patriot systems either,' he said. 'We can't make them fast enough.' Trump has expressed growing impatience with the pace of peace talks around the ongoing conflict. Zelensky's rhetoric is doing Ukraine 'no favors,' he wrote on Truth Social on Monday, adding that 'everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop.' He also condemned Russia's increased long-range strikes on Ukraine, claiming the attacks are happening 'for no reason whatsoever.' Russian forces have intensified large-scale strikes against drone and missile production facilities in Ukraine last week, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has confirmed. The attacks were a retaliation for Ukraine's escalating strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure, and solely targeted Ukrainian military sites, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Monday. Russian air defenses have intercepted nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fixed-wing UAVs over the country in the past week, Defense Ministry reports say.
Reuters
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Ukraine's parliament ratifies minerals deal with US, hopes for more arms
KYIV, May 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday in favour of ratifying a minerals deal signed with the United States, an agreement Kyiv hopes will secure future military assistance from Washington in its fight to repel Russian troops. Despite misgivings by some Ukrainian lawmakers over whether the government had provided them with all the information on the deal and over some of its compromises, 338 voted in favour of ratifying the agreement, with none against. "The Ukrainian Parliament has ratified the historic Economic Partnership Agreement between Ukraine and the United States," First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a post on X. "This document is not merely a legal construct — it is the foundation of a new model of interaction with a key strategic partner." Some lawmakers had raised concerns over the lack of detail of some of the deal's provisions, such as how an envisaged investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction would be governed or how any contributions would be made. Svyrydenko called an early Thursday press conference to answer some of those concerns, saying the investment fund would be operational in a few weeks, and its success would depend on the level of U.S. engagement. Two supplements would spell out the details and would be published at a later date, officials have said about the deal which might not see a payoff for a decade or longer. Parliament's ratification comes a day before Russia - which launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine in February 2022 - will try to show its strength at a military parade to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Those preparations have been overshadowed by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia, and Kyiv will hope the ratification of the minerals deal will bolster its position in ceasefire talks, which so far have done little to close the gap between Moscow and Kyiv, to the frustration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Russia's demands for Ukraine to cede all the land Russian President Vladimir Putin claims to have annexed and accept permanent neutrality have been rejected by Kyiv, which says that would amount to surrender and leave the nation undefended. Ukraine has expressed readiness to accept a U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which could be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and has accused the Kremlin of ignoring the plan. Putin has proposed a ceasefire of only three days - from May 8-10. The minerals deal, signed last month in Washington, hands the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and sets up the investment fund, which could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine for the first 10 years. After months of fraught talks that almost fell apart at a disastrous meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in February, the deal also hands Kyiv some wins: no return of aid that Trump says Kyiv owes and a U.S. acknowledgement of Kyiv's intention to join the European Union. Ukraine also sees the deal as a route to unlock the delivery of new U.S. weapons, especially additional Patriot air defence systems it badly needs to repel Russia's increasingly frequent missile attacks. The deal offered no clear guarantee of that. The agreement, which Zelenskiy says offers Ukraine a better deal than previous drafts - which some in Kyiv had described as "colonial", - is central to Kyiv's efforts to mend ties with Trump after the Oval office meeting. Some Ukrainian lawmakers praised the government's efforts to influence Trump's position, which initially appeared to favour Russia. "Trump's initial position is changing by millimetres, but so far its movement is in the right direction," Inna Sovsun, a lawmaker from the Holos opposition party, said on Facebook, adding that while she might not like the deal's "mercantile" nature, it was important to show that Ukraine is a "constructive party". Some 47% of Ukrainians support the deal, while 22% say it might have negative consequences and 19% say it will have no impact, according to researchers at the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
