
Trump says he struck deal to send US weapons to Ukraine through NATO
CNN
President Donald Trump told NBC he struck a deal with NATO on Thursday for the US to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance, and that NATO will pay for those weapons “a hundred percent.”
President Donald Trump told NBC on Thursday he struck a deal with NATO for the US to send weapons to Ukraine through the alliance, and that NATO will pay for those weapons “a hundred percent.” “We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, a hundred percent,” the president told NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone interview Thursday. “We’re going to be sending Patriots to NATO, and then NATO will distribute that,” he said, according to NBC News. A NATO spokesperson said in a statement Friday: “Allies continue to work to ensure Ukraine has the support they need to defend themselves against Russia’s aggression. This includes urgent efforts to procure key supplies from the United States, including air defence and ammunition.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke to Trump on Thursday. “Earlier today I urged leaders to go further so Ukraine has more ammunition & air defences,” Rutte posted on X. “I’ve just spoken with President Trump & am now working closely with Allies to get Ukraine the help they need.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said earlier Thursday that the United States is “actively” talking to countries in Europe about sharing Patriot batteries with Ukraine. “There are other Patriot batteries and there are other opportunities. Countries that have ordered Patriot batteries that are about to receive shipments of them, it’d be great if one of them volunteered to defer that shipment and send it to Ukraine instead,” Rubio told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

More than two decades ago, on January 24, 2004, I landed in Baghdad as a legal adviser, assigned an office in what was then known as the Green Zone. It was raining and cold, and my duffle bag was thrown into a puddle off the C-130 aircraft that had just done a corkscrew dive to reach the runway without risk of ground fire. Young American soldiers greeted me as we piled into a vehicle, sped out of the airport complex and then along a road called the “Highway of Death” due to car bombs and snipers.












