US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he will consider providing Ukraine with more Patriot defence systems to help Kyiv in its war against Russia.
Trump’s remarks came after a 50-minute meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday on the sidelines of a NATO ummit in The Hague, Netherlands. Address the press conference, alongside Zelenskiy, Trump said the war between Ukraine and Russia was “more difficult than other wars”. Speaking about Patriot missile defence systems that Ukraine has been yearning to obtain, Trump said they were hard to get but that “we are going to see if we can make some of them available”. Answering the reporter’s question about more US military aid to Kyiv, Trump said it was possible. “As far as money going, we’ll see what happens,” Trump stated. Zelenskiy has stated reportedly and before the meeting with Trump that Kyiv was willing to purchase Patriot systems if Washington was not willing to donate them.
Following the meeting, Zelenskiy posted on social media that the meeting with Trump “long and substantial”. Meanwhile, NATO general secretary Mark Rutte reiterated the alliance’s commitment to arm Ukraine in war against Russia. “The whole of Nato, including the United States, is totally committed to keep Ukraine in the fight, to make sure that if there is a peace deal, that peace deal – or the ceasefire – will be lasting, will be durable,” Rutte told Reuters at the end of the Nato summit.
