President Donald Trump announced Monday that NATO allies will finance the purchase of air defense systems and other weapons for Ukraine, his most significant move yet to support Kyiv in a war with Russia he’s long hoped to end.
The weapons, worth “billions of dollars,” will be built by the U.S. defense industry and financed by European countries, Trump said.
“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said, noting that NATO would coordinate the weapons transfers. “They feel strongly about it and we feel strongly about it, too. But we’re in it for a lot of money and we don’t want to do it anymore.”’
Trump made the announcement during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who heralded the president’s decision as “really big.”
