Trump promised Patriots to Ukraine, but question is who will provide them and when - Reuters
Donald Trump's decision to provide Ukraine with weapons, including the Patriot system, came as a surprise to US allies.
This is reported by Reuters, Censor.NET reports.
"President Donald Trump has finally found a way to please Ukraine: ask European allies to donate their weapons and sell them American ones to replace them. Now comes the tricky part - agreeing on who will actually give up their valuable systems, including the Patriot missile batteries that Kyiv so desperately seeks," the newspaper notes.
Trump has said that some Patriot systems should arrive in Ukraine "within days," but it is now clear that the US leader has presented only a general concept, not a detailed plan.
The central question is who will provide the Patriot batteries and when.
"As always with these things, the devil is in the details," said the ambassador of a Nordic country to Washington.
According to the newspaper, Ukraine and its allies have welcomed Trump's plan and the change in the US president's rhetoric in general. At the same time, some Europeans are disappointed that they are actually footing the bill for what Trump promised.
During a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, Rutte mentioned six NATO countries-Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada-who were willing to participate in the arms purchase scheme.
However, all of this came as a surprise to U.S. allies, Reuters reports.
Sources from the embassies of these countries told reporters that they personally learned about the plan only when it was announced.
"I have a distinct feeling that no one was informed of the exact details in advance. I also suspect that within the administration, they are only now beginning to understand what this means in practice," said one European ambassador.
Reuters writes that in response to a request for comment, the Pentagon pointed to Trump's July 14 speech in which he announced his agreement with Rutte. The White House and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
According to three U.S. arms officials, the real work is now starting.
U.S. officials are currently talking to NATO allies and assessing who is willing to send what to Ukraine. European officials are generally positive about this.
One official named Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, and Spain as countries that could send Patriots to Ukraine because they have multiple batteries or the threats they face are relatively remote.
Some countries, including Greece and Spain, have previously resisted calls to provide some of their Patriot systems to Ukraine. They explained this by the need to protect their own countries and NATO as a whole.
Another official said that the Trump administration is reviewing existing NATO stockpiles. Their next effort is to try to convince the allies to donate this equipment to Ukraine in exchange for some kind of "trade," the journalists write.
Another official said that Trump was directly involved in the talks, although the negotiations have been "vague" so far.
"So far, people are saying: "We can help". But we don't know what that means," the source told Reuters.
