Trump says US will send more weapons to Ukraine

By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the United States would be sending more weapons to Ukraine to help the war-torn country defend itself against Russian attacks.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Ukraine was getting hit very hard by Russia and needed to be able to defend itself. The United States would be sending primarily defensive weapons, he said.

Trump on Friday told reporters that Ukraine would need Patriot missiles to defend itself, but did not mention them again specifically on Monday.

"We're going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They're getting hit very hard, now. They're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily," he said at the start of a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After a call with Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had agreed to work on increasing Kyiv's capability to "defend the sky" as Russian attacks escalated. He said he discussed joint defense production, purchases and investments with Trump.

Ukraine has been asking Washington to sell it more Patriot missiles and systems that it sees as key to defending its cities from intensifying Russian air strikes.

A decision by Washington to halt some shipments of weapons to Ukraine prompted warnings by Kyiv that the move would weaken its ability to defend against Russia's air strikes and battlefield advances. Germany said it is in talks on buying Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine to bridge the gap.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by Christian Martinez; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Lincoln Feast)