Trump Says The U.S. Will Send More Weapons To Ukraine, Days After Ordering Pause | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump stated Monday the U.S. should ship extra weapons to Ukraine, simply days after ordering a pause in crucial weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

The feedback by Trump gave the impression to be an abrupt change in posture after the Pentagon introduced final week that it might maintain again delivering to Ukraine some air protection missiles, precision-guided artillery and different weapons amid U.S. considerations that its personal stockpiles have declined an excessive amount of.

“We have to,” Trump advised reporters about further weapons deliveries for Ukraine. “They have to be able to defend themselves.”

Meanwhile, Russian assaults on Ukraine killed not less than 11 civilians and injured greater than 80 others, together with seven kids, officers stated Monday.

The transfer to abruptly pause shipments of Patriot missiles, precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles and Howitzer rounds and weaponry took Ukrainian officers and different allies unexpectedly.

The pause had come at a troublesome second for Ukraine, which has confronted rising, and extra advanced, air barrages from Russia in the course of the greater than three-year-long conflict.

The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon whether or not the paused weapons shipments to Ukraine would resume.

Trump maintains he’s decided to shortly conclude a battle that he had promised as candidate to finish of Day One of his second time period.

Trump, talking in the beginning of a dinner he was internet hosting for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the White House on Monday night, vented his rising frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has struggled to discover a decision to the the brutal conflict.

“I’m not happy with President Putin at all,” Trump stated.

In a separate improvement, Russian’s transport minister was discovered useless in what authorities stated was an obvious suicide — information that broke hours after the Kremlin introduced he had been dismissed by Putin. The firing of Roman Starovoit adopted a weekend of journey chaos when airports grounded a whole bunch of flights as a result of risk of drone assaults from Ukraine, though Russian officers didn’t give a motive for his dismissal.

Hundreds of flights had been canceled or delayed at airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg, however Russian commentators stated the air site visitors disruptions have turn into customary amid frequent Ukrainian drone raids and had been unlikely to have triggered his dismissal.

Starovoit, 53, served as Russia’s transport minister since May 2024. Russian media have reported that his dismissal might have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allotted for constructing fortifications within the Kursk area, the place he served as governor earlier than being appointed transportation minister.

The alleged embezzlement has been cited as one of many causes for deficiencies in Russia’s defensive strains that didn’t stem a shock Ukrainian incursion within the area launched in August 2024.

Russia fired greater than 100 drones at civilian areas of Ukraine in a single day, authorities stated.

Russia lately has intensified its airstrikes on civilian areas after greater than three years of conflict. In the previous week, Russia launched some 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and virtually 1,000 highly effective glide bombs at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Monday.

Russia’s greater military can also be making an attempt exhausting to interrupt via at some factors alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620 miles) entrance line, the place Ukrainian forces are severely stretched.

The pressure of conserving Russia’s invasion at bay, the dearth of progress in direct peace talks, and final week’s halt of some promised U.S. weapons shipments have compelled Ukraine to hunt extra army assist from the U.S. and Europe.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt stated earlier Monday that the pause in weapons to Ukraine got here as a part of a “standard review of all weapons and all aid” that the U.S. “is providing all countries and all regions around the world. Not just Ukraine.”

Leavitt stated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the worldwide overview of weapons and help to make sure that “everything that’s going out the door aligns with America’s interests.”

Zelenskyy stated Saturday that Ukraine had signed offers with European allies and a number one U.S. protection firm to step up drone manufacturing, making certain Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” extra this 12 months.

“Air defense is the main thing for protecting life,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Monday.

That consists of growing and manufacturing interceptor drones that may cease Russia’s long-range Shahed drones, he stated.

Extensive use of drones has additionally helped Ukraine compensate for its troop shortages on the entrance line.

One individual was killed within the southern metropolis of Odesa, one other individual was killed and 71 had been injured in northeastern Kharkiv and falling drone particles induced harm in two districts of Kyiv, the capital, throughout nighttime drone assaults, Ukrainian authorities stated.

Russian short-range drones additionally killed two individuals and injured two others within the northern Sumy area, officers stated. Sumy is likely one of the locations the place Russia has concentrated giant numbers of troops.

Also, 9 individuals had been injured and 7 killed within the Donetsk area of jap Ukraine, regional head Vadym Filashkin stated. He didn’t specify the weapons used.

More Russian long-range drone strikes Monday focused army mobilization facilities for the third time in 5 days, in an obvious try to disrupt recruitment, Ukraine’s Army Ground Forces command stated.

Regional officers in Kharkiv and southern Zaporizhzhia stated not less than 17 individuals had been injured.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated Monday that its troops shot down 91 Ukrainian drones in 13 Russian areas in a single day, in addition to over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Madhani reported from Washington. Associated Press author Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed.

Follow AP’s protection of the conflict in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine