President Donald Trump announced a fresh NATO agreement on Thursday night that emerged from last month’s summit, allowing the U.S. to send arms to Ukraine via allied nations.
“We are delivering weapons to NATO, with NATO covering the full cost,” Trump stated during a phone interview with NBC News. “The weapons are being dispatched to NATO, and NATO is responsible for supplying these to Ukraine, taking care of all expenses.”
“We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,” he added.
Dozens of people were injured during the Russian drone attack on Kharkiv on July 11, 2025. (East 2 West)
Trump has been expressing growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the ongoing war in Ukraine intensifies. The conflict has seen a rise in frequency and severity, including overnight attacks that resulted in nine deaths and 42 injuries across Ukraine and targeted a maternity hospital.
“Women in labor with children, women after surgery. Fortunately, there were no children among the victims. Russia targets life. Even where it is just beginning,” Zelenskyy said.
No one is believed to have been killed in the maternity hospital strike.
Trump, who told NBC News that he plans to make a “major statement” on Russia come Monday, was asked on Friday about the strike that targeted the maternity hospital, to which he said simply, “You’ll be seeing things happening.”
Rescuers work at the site of a maternity ward of a hospital destroyed by a Russian missile attack, as the attack on Ukraine continues, in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine November 23, 2022. (Reuters/Stringer)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday from the sidelines of an international conference in Malaysia that, following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, he would be presenting Trump with a “new and different” approach to ending the war.
Rubio did not expand on what this new approach entailed.
The secretary was seen approaching Lavrov again on Friday, but when asked about it by reporters, he offered no details and said it was regarding an “unrelated” matter.
