White House shifts policy - steps away from Moscow - supports NATO and Ukraine

U.S. President Trump and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte confirm that more Patriot batteries and other weapons are coming to Ukraine, while sanctions remain on hold.

U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte announced during a joint press conference in the Oval Office that Ukraine would be receiving additional full Patriot batteries “within days,” with up to 17 batteries committed. Sanctions against nations that buy Russian products and services were put on hold for another 50 days.

“We made a deal today to send weapons to Ukraine,” said Trump. “The U.S. will manufacture them, NATO allies will pay. We’re sending ‘the best’, top-of-the-line weaponry, coordinated by NATO.”

At last month’s NATO Summit at The Hague, Alliance members agreed to treat future military aid packages to Ukraine as classified information, leaving today’s announcement light on details. Secretary Rutte clarified that Ukraine would be receiving more than Patriot batteries, adding that Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Denmark were among the nations that would be paying for the new aid package. Some weapons and systems will come from NATO Alliance nations’ stock and be replaced by the U.S. Unconfirmed reports suggested the latest aid package for Ukraine is equal to $10 billion.

Autocrat Vladimir Putin was given another 50 days to accept a ceasefire agreement by Trump, or risk facing 100% secondary tariffs on Russian goods and services. While not specified what was included, Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) bill specifically addresses energy products.

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Trump continued to express frustration with Putin, finally admitting that Moscow was the roadblock to a ceasefire. “The only country we haven't been able to reach an agreement with yet is Russia. I'm disappointed in Putin. I thought we were going to make a deal two months ago, but it looks like we never got there.”

Axios reported that when Trump and Putin talked on 3 July, the Russian autocrat said that within 60 days, his forces will have completed the capture of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts. Allegedly, Trump became convinced that Putin was only interested in escalating his war of aggression, causing the shift in Washington policy.

When asked why he decided to delay secondary sanctions for 50 days, Trump said, “I think it's a very short period of time. I have been involved in this not very long. This is a Biden war, a Democrat war, not a Republican or Trump war.”

An additional 50-day pause on secondary sanctions raised suspicions among Ukrainian supporters that the White House is continuing to assist Moscow with its offensive, waiting to implement the tariffs until the summer offensive has concluded. It also comes at a time when the Trump administration is imposing 10% to 50% tariffs on numerous allies.

Secretary Rutte issued a warning to Putin, suggesting that this may be the final offer. “If I were Putin and heard what Trump was planning in these 50 days, I would think about whether I would sit down at the negotiating table. This is great news for Ukraine.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was en route to Washington to meet with his counterpart, Pete Hegseth. The trip comes on the heels of Berlin announcing it was purchasing Typhoon fire units from the U.S., which are ground-based Tomahawk cruise missile launchers.

Of more interest, Rutte said to reporters, “If I were Putin and heard what Trump was planning in these 50 days, I would think about whether I would sit down at the negotiating table. This is great news for Ukraine.

In Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. Special Envoy Keith Kellogg, who has taken on a more prominent role after being sidelined during the spring. “We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer,” said Zelenskyy. This includes strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, joint production, and procurement of defense weapons in collaboration with Europe. And of course, sanctions against Russia and those who help it. We hope for U.S. leadership, as it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its unreasonable ambitions are curbed through strength.”

Zelenskyy also spoke by phone with Trump and Rutte. “Thank you for the willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace,” Zelenskyy said. “We agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future as well. Thank you, Mr. President! Thank you, America!”

During his call with Rutte, it was further clarified that today’s announcement goes beyond air defense systems. “There will also be deliveries of other weapons to protect [the] lives of our people and repel Russian assaults,” said Zelenskyy. “It’s important to increase pressure on Russia for the sake of peace and to save lives. Thank you, Mark!”

In an interview on the Russian state media channel Russia 1, Putin continued to portray the Russian Federation as a victim in the post-Soviet era. “The West decided: the Soviet Union is gone, so why should we follow the rules when it comes to Russia, which doesn’t possess the same potential power the USSR once had?” quipped Putin. “Now we’ll just snip-snip here and there, carve things out the way we like, and live by the rules we've made for ourselves — ignoring Russia’s interests. It became clear that unless we assert ourselves as an independent, sovereign nation capable of defending our own future, no one will take us seriously.”

Russian propagandist and director of the Russian state media agency RT (Russia Today), Margarita Simonyan, made nuclear threats directly against the U.S. “This will all end with a nuclear ultimatum…We are left with no choice,” she said.

Russian milblogger Rybar mostly dismissed today’s announcement, latching on to the emerging talking points from the Kremlin. “The peacekeeping rhetoric of the U.S. has predictably been replaced by statements about imminent new arms deliveries to the Kyiv regime. From Trump's usual verbal flow, one can single out that Europe will pay for the aid.”

Rybar repeated the messaging from milblogger Older than Edda, that the U.S. and its allies were out of weapons and munitions, and today’s announcements don’t matter. They added that Russia has already been hit by every weapon in the NATO arsenal except JASSM-ER, and did express concern about its capabilities to conduct deep strikes within Russia. Without mentioning the Epstein files specifically, Rybar also said that the Trump administration is facing “their internal problems,” and a history of not delivering on promises to his voters.

Other Russian sources expressed deeper concerns about the crumbling relationship between Trump and Putin, suggesting that this was a time for detente.

In our assessment, Russia has absolutely no chance of capturing the rest of the regions it illegally claims to possess in the next 50 days without the strategic use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. The occupation of the remainder of the Kherson Oblast would require brigade-sized contested wet crossings of the Dnipro River in a drone-saturated environment where Ukraine holds air parity.

We’re unsure if Russian forces can even capture the last 1% of the Luhansk Oblast Ukrainian forces hold near the hamlet of Nadiya. While we believe that the Russian troops will reach the administrative boundary of Kostiantynivka and possibly Pokrovsk by the fall, the fight for both cities will take from 6 to 12 months, based on past Russian offensives.

Ukraine has between six to eight Patriot air defense batteries in service today, in addition to SAMP-T, IRIS-T and IRIS-T SL, NASAMS, medium-range Hawk, medium-range Raven, and legacy Soviet-era S-300. Any additional Patriot systems, whether it is two, three, or seventeen, as Trump claimed during the press conference, will help save Ukrainian civilians’ lives.

The larger question is providing enough interceptors, especially the PAC-3, which is designed to intercept ballistic weapons such as the Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile, the Kh-22/23 antiship cruise missile, which uses a ballistic trajectory in its terminal phase, and the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal air-to-surface ballistic missile.

Today’s announcement did not break any promises made by President Trump to his voters. Trump publicly supported the “America First, Russia & Ukraine Plan,” authored by Special Envoy Kellogg in April 2024. The policy document stated that if Ukraine did not negotiate in good faith, military aid would be cut off. However, if Russia did not negotiate in good faith, military aid to Ukraine would not only be maintained but also increased. Trump went one step further, declaring that he would arm Ukraine “to the teeth” if Russia did not negotiate in June 2024.

The White House has also shifted its view on how to support the defense of the E.U. and NATO. It is a major change in tone compared to 90 days ago. Deeper support for Ukraine, regardless of who is paying for it, sends a renewed signal to the Alliance as well as other U.S. allies such as Taiwan.

In our opinion, while this was less than what many hoped, it is clear that Putin’s spell over Trump has been broken, representing a formal policy shift.

It is also another failure of U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East and Russia, Steve Witkoff, who was also unable to find a path to peace between Hamas and Israel, and could not broker a new nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran.

Russian propagandists may tell themselves that the U.S. and NATO are out of ammunition and weapons, but they ignore the fact that 40% to 50% of all Russian munitions now come from North Korea. In 3.5 years, Russia’s visually confirmed armored losses are almost equivalent to the entire inventory of U.S. Abrams main battle tanks and the complete inventory of Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Assaults are being carried out in Ladas and UAZ-452 “Scooby-doo” vans, and donkeys are being used for logistics. Russia is facing its own crippling inventory issues.

Another 50-day wait for the White House to impose secondary sanctions on nations that still buy Russian goods and services may not be as nefarious as some are proposing. Negotiations with Russia are at a dead end. However, countries such as China and India will face significant disruptions if a 100% tariff were imposed on the purchase of Russian oil, natural gas, and coal, which could lead to retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. This presents a narrow window for nations to engage in dialogue with Washington and Moscow. It also leaves the White House with the last card it can play. We still have misgivings, as we believe the fastest path to peace is Senator Graham’s “bone-crushing” sanctions bill, given the condition of Russia’s economy.

Last year, we assessed that President Trump would not want to own a U.S. policy failure framed as a military defeat by the Russians. When left with no other options, given his history of hating failure and revulsion to hearing the word “no,” the White House would be left with no other exit ramp other than to continue support.

It’s also important to note that over the weekend, Trump’s surrogates said that today’s announcement was the first of more to come during the week. There may be more news to come.

Finally, Trump made it clear to his cabinet that he supports Ukraine. Hopefully, there won’t be additional rogue decisions within the Pentagon to subvert that directive.

Malcontent News is an independent news agency established in 2016 and a Google News affiliate. To remain independent, we are supported by our subscribers and limit advertising. The easiest way to support our team is to subscribe to our Substack.