Trump Has 'Options' on Ukraine Aid Outside of Congress, Says Former NSC Official

David Shimer, former director for Eastern Europe and Ukraine at the National Security Council under President Biden, says that President Trump has money and weapons available to help Ukraine in its defense against Russia and that support is key in negotiating a potential peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a meeting with US and European allies in Rome stoked optimism that Donald Trump’s administration will ramp up military aid to the war-battered country, including air defense.

The meeting of the so-called coalition of the willing — which included a senior Trump envoy — came hours after Russia’s latest deadly drone-and-missile assault on Kyiv. The Ukrainian leader said he’d had a “positive dialog” with the US president over the delivery of Patriot air-defense batteries.

“It’s crucial that — following our constructive and very positive conversations with President Trump — we have all necessary political signals on the resumption of aid shipments,” Zelenskiy told reporters in the Italian capital Thursday. “Now we are working at staff level to ensure timely deliveries to Ukraine”

The Italian-hosted gathering was slated to discuss funding for Ukraine’s post-war recovery, but Russia’s relentless attacks and the Kremlin’s refusal to engage in ceasefire negotiations forced allies to grapple with the reality that such a prospect is more remote than ever. Vladimir Putin’s intransigence also appears to have shifted the balance in Washington, with Trump castigating the Russian president for failing to work to end the war.

The Ukrainian president said leaders in Rome — and those who joined remotely — agreed to ratchet up investment in drone production. The Kremlin aims to broaden massive drone strikes to as many as 1,000 a day, Zelenskiy said.

European leaders who took part in the meeting, which included the US special envoy Keith Kellogg, came away with a more positive sense of transatlantic unity. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said the dynamic since the June 24-25 NATO summit was moving the US and the European Union closer together.

“I’ve noticed already a vibe shift at the NATO summit two weeks ago, because in the NATO meeting it was very clear that we were more united than ever,” Schoof told reporters in Rome. “I think that progressed in the last two weeks, also in relation to support for Ukraine.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who this week confirmed that his government is in talks with Washington to secure Patriots, said the matter was yet undecided. Berlin is willing to provide Kyiv with two additional US-made air defense systems, including interceptor missiles, and cover the full costs for the much-needed deliveries, Bloomberg News reported last week.

Latvia’s prime minister, Evika Silina, was more bullish, signaling that a delivery of Patriots was imminent — “there will be Patriots” — though it was ultimately up to countries overseeing the hardware.

“There is a commitment to help Ukraine with new Patriot systems,” Silina told reporters in Riga after she took part the meeting via video conference.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US is discussing the matter with European allies, though the hardware would come from European stockpiles.

“There are multiple countries in Europe that possess Patriot batteries that they could share with Ukraine, and we’re actively talking to countries about doing that,” Rubio told reporters in Kuala Lumpur following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The secretary suggested that nations such as Spain and Germany should consider transferring the hardware to Ukraine to help protect against Russian attacks.

A Pentagon review of the stockpiles of air-defense missiles, artillery shells and other hardware to Ukraine last week was misunderstood, Rubio said. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Monday that the Pentagon “will send additional defensive weapons to Ukraine” following a halt in supplies that was later reversed by Trump.

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