Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump to send Patriot missiles to Kyiv because Putin ‘bombs everybody’
Donald Trump said the US will send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine, which he claimed were necessary to defend the country because Russian president Vladimir Putin “talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening”.
The US president did not give a number of missiles he plans to send to Ukraine, but he said the US would be reimbursed for their cost by the EU.
Mr Trump has grown increasingly disenchanted with Mr Putin after he resisted Washington’s attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. He is due to make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday.
“He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there’s a little bit of a problem there. I don’t like it,” Mr Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
“We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100 per cent for that, and that’s the way we want it,” Mr Trump said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s security agency says it has tracked down and killed Russian agents who assassinated a Ukrainian intelligence officer during the week.
