🔶 Trump: Europe should pay the cost of U.S. aid to Ukraine

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, has said he intends to ask European countries to reimburse the United States for the cost of the military aid and ammunition that had previously been provided by the United States to Ukraine and NATO; a cost, he said, that amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars.

Trump says these support measures were provided “for free” during the administration of Joe Biden, while Europe should have paid for them. He also rejected reports related to a significant reduction in U.S. ammunition stockpiles.

At the same time, Trump stressed that the United States has “almost unlimited quantities” of ammunition.

According to him, U.S. stockpiles are “far more than what is needed for operations against Iran.” He also said that the United States is producing ammunition on a large scale.

These remarks are seen as a reaction to reports indicating that U.S. stocks of some precision weapons and air-defense missiles have decreased significantly as a result of the war with Iran.

This has raised concerns about the operational readiness of the U.S. Army for potential future conflicts.

Trump also announced a temporary halt in ammunition sales to allied countries and said the United States will prioritize its stocks in the short term, but will resume sales soon.

He said that Ukraine received, for free, far more ammunition than the amount of ammunition the United States consumed in its operations against Iran.

In response, Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, said the assistance from the Biden administration had been provided as grants, not loans. According to him, the United States provided aid to his country in almost the same amount as Europe and other partners—that is, about $100 billion.

While Donald Trump puts pressure on Europe to reimburse the costs to Washington, the United States and NATO have previously created a mechanism through which European partners finance the purchase of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition for transfer to Ukraine.

📌 Read the full text of the report on the website of Deutsche Welle Farsi.