‘Not giving anything, selling weapons now,’ says Trump on aid to Ukraine, but assures security

US President Donald Trump said on Monday at the media briefing in the White House that the United States is not giving anything to Ukraine in military aid and is selling weapons now. Trump also blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for all the trouble and called him a horrible and corrupt president. Replying to a question, Trump said, “We are not giving anything; we are selling weapons now. This was done by a corrupt administration, Biden. This war would have never happened. He was a horrible, corrupt president.” However, Trump assured security guarantees for Ukraine and did not categorically rule out the idea of deploying US troops in Ukraine.

“We will give them very good protection and very good security,” Trump said when asked about security guarantees to Ukraine.

‘Europe the first line of defence, but we’re going to help them out’

When asked if security guarantees for Ukraine could involve US troops, Trump said, “We’ll let you know that maybe later today. We’re meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we’ll be talking about that. They’ll all be involved, but there’ll be a lot of, there’ll be a lot of help. They are the first line of defence because they’re there. They’re Europe. But we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.”

Again asked if the US will commit Americans to NATO-like protection for Ukraine, Trump said, “I don’t know if you’d define it that way, but NATO-like... We have people waiting in another room right now. They’re all here from Europe, biggest people in Europe, and they want to give protection, they feel very strongly about it. And we’ll help them out with it.”

While US officials promised “Article 5”-style security guarantees for Ukraine, it is unclear what that means. Article 5 of the NATO treaty requires members to come to the aid of each other in cases of military threats.

When a reporter asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky what security guarantees he needs from Trump, he replied, “Everything,” and mentioned training missions and intelligence sharing as key components needed to strengthen the Ukrainian army.

‘So, no elections in US if we are at war after 3.5 years,’ jokes Trump

When Zelensky was asked if he was open to holding elections in Ukraine, he answered in the affirmative but added that a truce would make it possible to hold elections.

“We have to do safety and circumstances... We need to work in the Parliament, because during the war, you can’t have elections, but we can, we can do security,” he said.

“We need a truce... to make possible for people to do democratic, open, legal, legal elections.”

Trump quickly seized the opportunity to lighten the mood and said, “So you’re saying that during the war you can’t have elections, so let me just say that three and a half years from now—you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections?”

Zelenskiy laughed, quickly adding, “No, no.”