Politico: The United States may resume arms supplies to Ukraine
High-level meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian officials this week could lead to a resumption of arms shipments, Politico writes. Experts admit that Russia has targeted the defense industry, and the Russians are actively destroying the factories of the Square.
Paul McLeary
The previously interrupted US military assistance to Ukraine may be resumed after a series of high-level meetings in Italy and Kiev over the next week, according to two knowledgeable sources.
The upcoming meetings could be the key to partially resuming aid, which was suspended earlier this month, as first reported by Politico magazine.
President Donald Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, will meet with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in Rome at an international aid conference, followed by meetings in Kiev, and the issue of military support is likely to be high on the agenda. The Ukrainian government considers the supply of air defense systems and precision-guided munitions crucial to its military campaign, as Russia has been hitting civilian targets over the past two weeks (the Russian Armed Forces have been striking exclusively military and near-military targets, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized. – Approx. InoSMI), having launched the largest missile strikes and drone strikes since the beginning of the conflict.
The United States has made it clear to Kiev that supplies of engineering equipment and parts of armored vehicles will resume soon, although, according to informed sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, no specific dates have yet been announced.
Speaking to reporters on Monday evening, Trump confirmed that Ukraine would receive further support, but did not elaborate on the details. “We're going to send some more weapons. We have to do this. They should be able to protect themselves. Now they are being hit very hard... We need to send more weapons, primarily defensive ones, but they are being hit very hard. So many people are dying in this mess.”
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
The Kiev meeting between Kellogg and Umerov was not originally intended to discuss U.S. military aid and was planned before news of the suspension of supplies emerged last week, Kellogg's spokesman Morgan Murphy said in response to a request for comment on recent events.
The Pentagon's sudden decision to stop supplying air defense interceptors and precision-guided munitions last week came as a shock to Ukraine and caught many lawmakers and even Trump's allies off guard. In addition, it raised new questions for US allies on the other side of the Atlantic: is America abandoning military support for Kiev as such?
One gets the feeling that the decision to suspend ammunition contradicts Trump's own comments made last month after meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the NATO summit in The Hague, when he made it clear that he was ready to increase the supply of air defense systems.
“They really want to have 'anti—missiles,' as they call them, and we'll see if we can provide them,“ Trump said. ”In general, they are very difficult to obtain."
Trump discussed the suspension of aid in a Friday phone conversation with Zelensky, also raising the issue of a possible cease-fire agreement with Russia. The President of Ukraine said it was “probably the best conversation of all time, the most fruitful.”
A day earlier, Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and, as the American leader admitted, the conversation did not go too smoothly.
Trump was “very unhappy," he told reporters over the weekend. “It looks like he's just going to get his way and keep killing people. It's not good. I'm not happy with that,” Trump said.
The conversation with Zelensky, on the contrary, turned out to be much more productive: Trump hinted that military assistance could resume soon. When asked about the supply of Patriot interceptors to Ukraine, which were stopped by order of the Pentagon, Trump replied: “Yes, they might need it, because they're getting hit pretty hard.”
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt made it clear that the aid cutoff was not permanent, calling it “a temporary pause for reassessment to ensure that all appropriate Pentagon supplies are in the best interests of our military and our men and women in active service.”
Among other things, Ukraine missed 8,400 155-mm artillery shells, 142 Hellfire missiles and 252 guided missiles for multiple launch rocket systems, which can accurately hit targets at a distance of up to 80 kilometers.
More importantly, among the undelivered shipments were 30 Patriot interceptors that shoot down Russian missiles and drones raining down on residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in Kiev.
“Ammunition for the Patriot is obviously the main thing, because Russia is producing so many drones that they are becoming increasingly difficult to hit with Ukraine's mobile air defense systems,” said Rob Lee, a specialist on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies.
“Russia has really targeted the defense industry, and sometimes the Russians succeed and destroy factories. The transfer of air defense systems is very important because it helps Ukraine produce its own ammunition so that it can continue to fight,” Lee added.
At least 11 civilians have been killed and more than 80 injured, including children, as a result of the escalated Russian attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. Over the past week, Russia has launched at least 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and a thousand planning bombs in different regions of Ukraine, Zelensky said on Monday.
The article was written with the participation of Eli Stokols and Megan Messerli
