Europe May Buy US Weapons for Ukraine as Trump Pulls Back Support
As U.S. President Donald Trump distances himself from Ukraine, European leaders are scrambling for ways to maintain critical military support — with a growing consensus around a simple strategy: buy American.
Faced with dwindling ammunition and limited production capacity, European countries are weighing a new approach — purchasing U.S.-made weapons systems themselves and transferring them to Ukraine, The Gaze reports, citing Bloomberg.
The urgency is driven by growing concerns that Ukraine will run out of U.S.-approved weapons by mid-summer, while Europe lacks sufficient defense manufacturing capacity to fill the gap. At the same time, Trump has rejected European calls to increase pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, including the use of fresh sanctions to force a ceasefire.
The EU is responding with its own escalatory steps. Brussels is considering expelling more than 20 Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system, tightening oil sanctions, and possibly banning the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Arming Ukraine with U.S. weapons is increasingly seen as the most effective way to keep Russia in check.
“If Trump refuses to send weapons, Europe will,” said one official familiar with the plan.
Trump’s mixed signals leave him balancing two political instincts: avoiding confrontation with Putin and using U.S. defense exports to boost the economy. That tension could open the door for transatlantic cooperation, albeit in an unconventional form.
Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine has reportedly resumed after a brief pause. Experts warn that if Washington ends that cooperation, it would seriously hinder Kyiv’s military capabilities and alarm European allies.
Analysts like Charles Kupchan from the Council on Foreign Relations argue that equipping Ukraine with American weapons — even through European intermediaries — remains the most direct path to stopping the war.
“Trump understands that if he were to throw Ukraine under the bus and Russia were to secure Ukraine’s capitulation, that’s a resounding political defeat for Donald Trump,” Kupchan said. “Ukraine becomes Trump’s Afghanistan, if not worse.”
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