U.S. President Donald Trump has consistently insisted that the war in Ukraine “is not Trump’s war. This is a Biden war, this is a Democrat war.” But on July 14, it started to look a lot like Trump’s war, as Trump announced “billions and billions” of dollars of American military equipment to be sent to Ukraine along with “severe tariffs” to be applied to any country who buys oil from Russia if a peace deal is not reached in fifty days. But that appearance may be illusory, and the new weapons deal may be a deception.
From one perspective, Trump’s reversal may be celebrated in Ukraine as America reentering the war with the first weapons package and the first tariffs of the Trump administration. From another perspective, the U.S. just made public that its new policy direction is to pull out of the war, stop providing Ukraine with free military equipment, and leave the war to Europe if they wish to continue fighting it.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, a hundred percent,” Trump said. The U.S. will no longer approve weapons packages for Ukraine. Instead, they will sell weapons to NATO who will then send those weapons to Ukraine, or they will sell weapons to NATO countries to replenish weapons they have sent to Ukraine.
Though Kiev may celebrate America’s reengagement in the war, the European countries who are financing it may see it differently. “If we pay for these weapons, it’s our support,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas rebutted. “So it’s European support…. If you promise to give the weapons, but say that somebody else is going to pay for it, it’s not really given by you, is it?”
The Trump announcement that American weapons would once again be flowing to Ukraine may simultaneously be America’s withdrawal from the war in Ukraine, returning the burden to Europe where Trump has long said it should be.
And it is not just a question of who is supplying Ukraine with the weapons. The new weapons deal may not even be what it seems.
The Financial Times has reported that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if the Ukrainian armed forces were able to bring the war to Russia and “make them feel the pain” by striking military targets deep inside Russia. “Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow?… Can you hit St Petersburg too?” Trump asked. “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,” Zelensky replied. But there are reports that Trump is not willing to give them the weapons.
The same Financial Times article reports that Trump told reporters at the White House that Zelensky “shouldn’t target Moscow” and that the U.S. is “not looking” to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Hellbound and Down 