Click to view full size

The Unit­ed States is sell­ing weapons to its NA­TO al­lies in Eu­rope so they can pro­vide them to Ukraine as it strug­gles to fend off a re­cent es­ca­la­tion in Rus­sia’s drone and mis­sile at­tacks, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and his chief diplo­mat said.

“We’re send­ing weapons to NA­TO, and NA­TO is pay­ing for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an in­ter­view with NBC late Thurs­day. “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.”

Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio said Fri­day that some of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is seek­ing are de­ployed with NA­TO al­lies in Eu­rope. Those weapons could be trans­ferred to Ukraine, with Eu­ro­pean coun­tries buy­ing re­place­ments from the U.S., he said.