The U.S. is sending more defensive weapons to Ukraine, the Pentagon says. Trump promised to immediately send 10 Patriot missiles to Ukraine after speaking to Zelenskyi on Friday, Axios said. Ukrainian troops restore positions in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, Ukraine’s top commander says.
U.S. sending more defensive weapons to Ukraine, Pentagon says
The U.S. Department of Defense said “additional defensive weapons” would now be shipped to Ukraine.
“At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that U.S. weapons deliveries would resume. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump told reporters during a White House event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night.
U.S. officials said on July 1 that the White House was halting some weapons deliveries to Ukraine out of concern that its own stockpiles have declined too far. Among the weapons affected were interceptors for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided artillery shells and missiles launched by Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had a phone call on July 4. Zelenskyi sought to convince the U.S. leader to resume deliveries and sell his country more weapons. “We spoke about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies,” he said on X, adding: “We had a detailed conversation about defense industry capabilities and joint production.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he was hoping for U.S. “flexibility” so Ukraine has the resources to defend itself after Washington unexpectedly halted some deliveries. “The U.S. has to make sure that the stockpiles are at the level we need for the U.S. to have, because they are crucial for our collective defense,” Rutte told reporters on Friday. “At the same time, of course, we hope for the flexibility, we have to make sure also that Ukraine can move forward.”
Trump promises to immediately send 10 Patriot missiles after speaking to Zelenskyi, Axios says
U.S. President Donald Trump promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptors to Ukraine after he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Friday, Axios said Tuesday, citing two unnamed sources. The paragraphs below are quoted from the report.
Still, Trump and his team are reluctant to part with many Patriot interceptors. He wants the Europeans to send more of their own money and materiel as well.
Trump’s change of heart started to become clearer on Friday when he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in what both sides said was their best phone call since Trump assumed office.
Trump told Zelensky he wants to help Ukraine’s air defenses but stressed that the U.S. had to pause the latest weapons shipment to review its own stockpiles, according to two sources briefed on the call.
Two sources said Trump promised to immediately send 10 Patriot interceptors — fewer than had been planned in the paused shipment — and help to find other means of supply.
The day prior, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had called Trump to ask him to release the Patriot interceptors that were paused while en route to Ukraine, a German official said.
The official said Merz told Trump that Germany is ready to buy Patriot batteries from the U.S. and send them to Ukraine.
For his part, Trump suggested Germany sell one of its Patriot batteries to Ukraine, according to three sources familiar with the discussion. They said the U.S. and European allies would split the cost of the purchase.
Trump and Merz didn’t reach an agreement, but officials say the discussion is ongoing.
German officials contend Germany has given a very high percentage of its Patriots to Ukraine — even more than the U.S. in relative terms.
With stocks dwindling amid multiple ongoing wars, there’s increasing concern among NATO countries about giving up munitions — particularly interceptors — more quickly than they can be produced.
“Getting a Patriot missile isn’t like going to Walmart and picking 10 off the shelf and going home,” one Trump adviser told Axios.
Ukrainian troops restore positions in Russia’s Kursk, Belgorod regions, Ukraine’s top commander says
Ukrainian troops have restored positions in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions and are holding land there, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Telegram Tuesday after a meeting of top military commanders.
“We continue to pin the enemy’s large grouping in the border area. The enemy will not have peace there,” Syrskyi said.
Head of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, told Russian leader Vladimir Putin on April 26 that the last occupied settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, had been “liberated from Ukrainian units”.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces denied the reports that Ukrainian troops had been pushed from a foothold in the Kursk region. DeepState, a Ukrainian OSINT project, said that Ukraine was still holding ground there.
The Institute for the Study of War said in a report on May 7 that Ukrainian forces had likely advanced across the international border into southern Tyotkino, in the Kursk region.
In subsequent reports in May, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that Ukrainian forces maintain their presence in the Kursk region and continue active combat operations there.
