President Donald Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Washington, D.C. Monday, announcing a new deal in which the U.S. will sell European partners U.S. weapons, allowing a greater supply of arms to Ukraine.
According to the leaders, the deal totals billions of dollars' worth of military equipment, including Patriot munitions and other missiles and ammunition.
Speaking in the Oval Office with President Trump, Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark would be among the nations purchasing U.S. munitions.
It comes after President Trump announced separately that the U.S. will be giving Patriot missiles to Ukraine to help in its war against Russia.
The president has been critical of Putin in recent days, a quick departure from the manner in which he'd talk about his Russian counterpart earlier this year.
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"I am very disappointed with [Russian] President Putin and I thought that he was somebody that meant what he said," President Trump told reporters on Sunday. "He'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that."
The conflict in Eastern Europe has intensified in recent weeks. The United Nations reports that June saw the worst casualties in Ukraine in nearly three years.
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Meanwhile on Capitol Hill this week, lawmakers continue to wait and see if President Trump will endorse a bipartisan plan to sanction Russia. One idea includes using frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine buy additional military equipment.
Another idea on Capitol Hill is to penalize countries that are buying Russian energy. However, it's a slippery slope because it could potentially mean harming some U.S. allies that rely on that energy.
