US President Donald Trump said Thursday he plans to make a “major statement” on Russia next week and confirmed his support for a Senate bill that would impose tough new sanctions on Moscow – while leaving the final decision to him.
“I’m disappointed in Russia, but we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks,” Trump told NBC News. “I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” he said, declining to elaborate.
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Trump also said he expects the Senate to pass the sanctions bill, which proposes imposing a 500-percent tariff on imported Russian goods, soon. Those goods include Russian oil, natural gas and uranium.
“It’s a bill that the Senate is passing that very respectfully lets the president do whatever he wants, as you know,” he said.
“In other words, it’s at my option if I want to use it. They’re going to pass a very major and very biting sanctions bill, but it’s up to the president as to whether or not he wants to exercise it,” he added.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), who introduced the legislation, has been urging Republican leaders to take it up for months. In recent days, he said the measure now has support from both Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-S.D).
Trump also revealed details of what he called a new arrangement between the United States, NATO, and Ukraine over arms deliveries – a deal he said was finalized at last month’s NATO summit.
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“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said.
“So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons [to Ukraine], and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
“We send weapons to NATO, and NATO is going to reimburse the full cost of those weapons,” he said.
It was unclear whether Trump was referring to an idea that has recently been floated of some NATO members’ potentially buying US-made weapons on behalf of Ukraine so Washington does not have to shoulder the cost.
Trump resumed the shipment of US weapons to Ukraine this week after the Defense Department earlier this month held up a scheduled shipment.
The pause came at a particularly vulnerable time for Ukraine, as Putin took advantage of the situation to launch record-breaking aerial attacks.
The pause, ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appeared to catch many in the Trump administration, including State Department officials, by surprise.
Asked Thursday about that weapons pause, Trump said, “I don’t know anything about it.” He added that Hegseth is “doing a great job.”
Recently, Trump has claimed to be growing increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin and is reluctant to hand Moscow a win by cutting off support to Ukraine. The US president hinted at those frustrations publicly.
“We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said Tuesday. “You want to know the truth? He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
The Kremlin said continued US military aid to Ukraine would not help end the war. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it will take time to determine what exactly is being sent and in what quantities.
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