US is selling weapons to NATO allies to give to Ukraine, Trump says

WASHINGTON AP The United States is selling weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off a new escalation in Russia s drone and missile attacks President Donald Trump and his chief diplomat explained We re sending weapons to NATO and NATO is paying for those weapons Trump commented in an interview with NBC late Thursday So what we re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons to Ukraine and NATO is paying for those weapons Secretary of State Marco Rubio reported Friday that selected of the U S -made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine with European countries buying replacements from the U S he announced It s a lot faster to move something for example from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a U S factory and get it there Rubio communicated reporters during a visit to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a media briefing during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting at the Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur Friday July Mandel Ngan Pool Photo via AP Ukraine badly demands more U S -made Patriot air defense systems to stop Russian ballistic and cruise missiles Trump s Republican administration has given conflicting signals about its readiness to provide more vital military aid to Ukraine for its more than three years of fighting Russia s invasion After a pause in several weapons shipments Trump declared he would keep sending defensive weapons to Ukraine U S bureaucrats mentioned this week that mm munitions and precision-guided rockets were on their way Ukraine is seeking more coveted Patriot air defense systems Germany Spain and other European countries possess Patriot missile systems and particular have placed orders for more Rubio announced The U S is encouraging its NATO allies to provide those weapons systems the defensive systems that Ukraine seeks since they have them in their stocks and then we can enter into financial agreements with them with us where they can purchase the replacements Rubio revealed Ukraine has required foreign countries to supply it with an additional Patriot systems and missiles Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained Thursday Germany is ready to provide two systems and Norway has agreed to supply one he disclosed Russia has in recent times sought to overwhelm Ukraine s air defenses by launching major aerial attacks Earlier this week Russia fired more than attack and decoy drones at Ukraine topping previous nightly barrages for the third time in two weeks At the same time Russia s bigger army is pressing hard on parts of the -kilometer -mile front line where thousands of soldiers on both sides have died since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February Impact of the latest Russian attacks In the latest attacks a Russian drone barrage targeted the center of Kharkiv just before dawn Friday injuring nine people and damaging a maternity hospital in Ukraine s second-largest city agents stated Karyna Holf stands in her apartment which was damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv Ukraine on Thursday July AP Photo Evgeniy Maloletka Mothers with newborns were being evacuated to a different healthcare facility Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram He didn t say whether anyone at the hospital was among the injured Also a daytime drone attack on the southern city of Odesa injured nine people There is no silence in Ukraine Zelenskyy disclosed after the Kharkiv bombardment Kyiv the Ukrainian capital has endured repeated and intensifying drone attacks in contemporary weeks as have plenty of other regions of the country mostly at night June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years with people killed and wounded the U N human rights mission in Ukraine explained Thursday Russia launched times more drones and missiles in June than in the same month last year it announced Other weapons sought by Ukraine Zelenskyy urged Ukraine s Western partners to briskly enact pledges of help they made at an international meeting in Rome on Thursday Related Articles Rubio and Wang stress cooperation after talks in Malaysia as US-China tensions simmer State Department is firing over employees under Trump administration plan Trump plans to tour Texas flood damage as the scope of the mishap tests his pledge to shutter FEMA The newest way to influence Trump Nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize Head Start will be cut off for immigrants without legal status Trump administration says Ukraine also requirements more interceptor drones to bring down Russian-made Shahed drones he mentioned adding Moscow plans to manufacture up to drones a day Zelenskyy noted Thursday that talks with Trump have been very constructive After repeated Russian drone and missile onslaughts in Kyiv executives reported Friday they are establishing a comprehensive drone interception system under a project called Clear Sky The project includes a million expenditure in interceptor drones operator training and new mobile response units according to the head of the Kyiv Military Administration Zelenskyy appealed to foreign partners to help Ukraine accelerate the production of the newly developed interceptor drones which have proved achieving against Shaheds We located a key as a country scientists and engineers identified a cure That s the key he declared We need financing And then we will intercept AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia