President Trump said Monday he had brokered a deal to send more weapons to Ukraine without burdening the U.S., while threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with new sanctions if there is no deal to end the war in 50 days.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s announcement marks a potential turning point for a president who had wanted to pull U.S. support from Ukraine and has repeatedly demonstrated favorable treatment to Putin despite Moscow\u2019s invasion of its neighbor.<\/p>\n
Under the deal, weapons would be sourced from NATO allies in Europe that just agreed to step up their defense spending at a summit Trump hailed as a success.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know about the deal.<\/p>\n
Trump announced last week that he had struck a deal for NATO to purchase weapons from the U.S. to send to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
He said Monday that these systems would include Patriot missile defense batteries critical for Ukraine to guard its skies under increasing Russian bombardment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement with the batteries,\u201d Trump said, adding that the batteries could arrive in Ukraine within days. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey’re paying for everything. We’re not paying anymore,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n
A top German military official told reporters in Kyiv<\/a> last week that Berlin was in negotiations for weeks with the U.S. over the potential purchase and transfer of a Patriot missile battery. <\/p>\n The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is the arm of the organization that handles acquisitions and logistics support and can be used to purchase and deliver the weapons for Ukraine. <\/p>\n The agency employs about 1,550 staff and oversees more than 2,500 contractors in NATO\u2019s missions across the world, according to NATO\u2019s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another avenue NATO allies can use to procure weapons for Ukraine is purchasing them directly with the U.S. on a bilateral basis, with NATO helping to facilitate such transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they’ll be sent to NATO. NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries where we can get a little additional speed, where the country will release something and be it’ll be mostly in the form of a replacement,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s little information on what exact weapons systems Trump is greenlighting for countries to purchase or what is being prioritized. <\/p>\n Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers at the NATO summit last month that in addition to Patriots, the country needs additional long-range weapons.<\/p>\n \u201cBut beyond that, I haven’t heard any specifics from this administration,\u201d she said in a call with reporters. <\/p>\n Trump acknowledged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had paused weapons shipments to Ukraine as part of a review of Pentagon stockpiles,\u00a0despite reports the president was caught off-guard<\/a>\u00a0when weapons to Ukraine were halted July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Pete was doing, and me too, I knew what Pete was doing, was evaluation, because we knew this was going to happen,\u201d Trump said, referring to the NATO procurement deal. <\/p>\n \u201cSo we did a little bit of a pause.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. still has $3.86 billion worth of presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine as part of appropriations provided by Congress. This allows for the U.S. to send weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles and use the money to purchase backfills. <\/p>\nWhat weapons systems will be included?<\/h2>\n
Drawdown authority<\/h2>\n