Why Trump's promise to send more weapons to Ukraine is an important advance for Kyiv in his war with Russia

For Ukraine, a large country that currently has just a few batteries – it is estimated that about eight – this represents a great advance, since it gives it the opportunity to expand its protection against Russian ballistic and cruise missiles.

Sitting with the president in the Oval Office on Monday, NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte, hinted that the package would be even greater.

“It's broader than patriot,” he said.

He added: “This means that Ukraine can access a really massive amount of military equipment, both for air defense and missiles, ammunition …”.

The new agreement is a significant advance for Ukraine.

Less than two weeks ago there was a dismay in Kyiv as the Pentagon had suspended military shipments to Ukraine, including patriot systems.

The decision -making process after that announcement is still clear, but on Monday Trump renamed him to claim that he was formulated knowing that this agreement was going to be realized.

“We were quite sure that this was going to happen, so we made a small pause,” said the president.

Now, after arduous negotiations – many of them with Rutte's participation – weapons can continue to flow without Washington having to pay the account.

“We have already put a lot of money,” said the president, “and we simply don't want to continue doing it.”

The agreement represents a personal triumph for Routte, who has flattered and pleased the US president, among other things helping to ensure the commitment of all NATO members to spend 5% of his GDP in defense.

Rutte described the new pact as “really important” and said it was “totally logical” that NATO European members finance it.

Several countries, he said, were already ready to participate, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.

“And this is just the first wave,” he said. “There will be more.”

On the other hand, Trump launched a threat to Moscow with a new deadline: if Vladimir Putin does not remember a high fire in the next 50 days, Russia and its commercial partners will be beaten with 100%secondary tariffs.

It is a new approach that Kyiv and members of the US Congress have been claiming: to press Russia by sanctioning countries that continue to buy their oil and gas, such as China and India.

Trump's movement occurs at a time when the US Senate continues to work on a bill that would impose much more harder sanctions.

The president evaluated that the Senate project, which contemplates secondary tariffs of 500%, “could be very good,” but added that “in the end it does not mean much, because there is a point where it doesn't matter.”

As usual, the details of the president's threat are still somewhat vague.

But, what happens in the coming weeks or months, on Monday it seemed to mark a turning point.

The US president finally seemed to have moved away from Vladimir Putin, although he gave some time to the Russian leader to sit down to negotiate.

It is definitely not a return to Joe Biden's promises to support Ukraine “the time that is necessary”, but neither the neutral posture that has so much disappointed to Ukraine and his western allies.

Trump seems to have guaranteed that the crucial supply of US weapons to Ukraine will remain open for the moment, provided that others finance it.

However, 50 days may seem an eternity for the Ukrainians, who continue to suffer night attacks with drones and missiles almost daily.

Nothing Trump has done seems to stop this immediately.

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