The Trump-NATO plan to ship weapons to Ukraine, briefly defined

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Welcome to The Logoff: Donald Trump introduced a brand new plan to get American weapons into Ukrainian fingers on Monday, as his persistence with Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to be working more and more skinny.

What simply occurred? Trump mentioned on Monday that NATO nations will begin shopping for US weaponry to ship to Ukraine. Whereas the US has been supplying Ukraine immediately, funding appropriated for that objective is on the verge of working out — however Monday’s information ought to hold weapons flowing to Ukraine.

Trump has mentioned the deal, which he introduced alongside NATO Secretary-Common Mark Rutte, is already finalized and that weapons will likely be “rapidly distributed to the battlefield.”

What’s the context? That is the second bit of excellent information for Ukraine in as many weeks, after Trump introduced final Monday that he would carry a pause on US deliveries of air protection missiles and different weapons to Ukraine.

It additionally comes as Ukraine faces an ever-greater risk from Russian drones and missiles. The 2 largest assaults of the struggle, with a whole lot of drones apiece, have struck at Kyiv this month, although Ukraine has been in a position to intercept a lot of the drones.

What else did Trump announce? On Monday, Trump additionally threatened “very extreme tariffs” on Russia if the struggle doesn’t finish inside the subsequent 50 days. That’s not prone to have a lot of an impression, because the US and Russia have a restricted commerce relationship — however Trump mentioned the US would additionally impose secondary sanctions focusing on nations that do enterprise with Russia on the 50-day mark, which may have extra chunk.

Why is Trump stepping up his assist for Ukraine now? Trump’s tone towards Putin has shifted in latest weeks, suggesting he’s more and more pissed off with the continued struggle and Russian intransigence. Final week, he mentioned, “We get plenty of bullshit thrown at us by Putin. … He’s very good to us on a regular basis, nevertheless it seems to be meaningless.”

And with that, it’s time to log out…

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