President Donald Trump has declared that the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine, prompting criticism from Moscow after Russia claimed new territorial advances in its prolonged war against Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the Kremlin responded to Trump’s remarks, warning that further arms shipments would only escalate the conflict.
“It is obvious of course that these actions probably do not align with attempts to promote a peaceful resolution,”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said during a briefing, as reported by Russian state news agencies.
Trump’s comments came a day after his announcement on Monday to supply “more weapons” to Ukraine, following recent confusion caused by Washington’s earlier decision to pause some military deliveries.
The delay had left Ukrainian officials uncertain and scrambling for clarity.
The pause posed a significant challenge for Kyiv as it faced some of the largest missile and drone assaults since the beginning of the war over three years ago.
“We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons primarily,”
Trump told reporters at the White House.
“They’re getting hit very, very hard,”
he added, while also expressing displeasure with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “not happy” with the Russian leader.
According to U.S. news outlet Axios, Trump has pledged to send 10 Patriot interceptors advanced anti-missile defense systems to aid Ukraine.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in 2022, continues to grind on with no clear end in sight, and Putin has shown little openness to diplomatic solutions, despite mounting international pressure and direct engagement from Trump.
Moscow claimed on Monday that its troops had taken control of their first village in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, following months of fighting.
Just before the announcement, Russia had unleashed another large-scale barrage of drones and missiles, targeting Ukrainian infrastructure, including military recruitment centers.
In response, Kyiv stated it had carried out a drone strike on a Russian ammunition plant in the Moscow region.
Russian forces announced the capture of Dachne, a village in the industrially vital Dnipropetrovsk region.
The area has seen intensified aerial assaults by Russia and increasing pressure on Ukraine’s defenses.
Last month, Moscow revealed that its forces had breached the Dnipropetrovsk border for the first time during the war. Ukraine’s military, however, reported on Monday that its troops had “repelled” Russian attacks in several locations within the region, including in the vicinity”of Dachne.
Notably, Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five regions, Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea that Russia has officially annexed or declared as part of its territory.
Describing the situation in the region, Ukrainian military analyst Oleksiy Kopytko told AFP that Russia’s goal is likely to establish a buffer zone.
“Our troops are holding their ground quite steadily,” he noted, despite calling the situation
“difficult” for Ukraine’s forces.
