Trump's Masterplan To Get Weapons To Ukraine Is Not The Diplomatic Win It Seems

President Donald Trump has triumphantly unveiled plans to send weapons to Ukraine last week – via European allies.Donald Trump triumphantly unveiled a plan to send weapons to Ukraine last week as though it was going to be a major turning point in the three-year war.The US president declared that European allies would donate their munitions to the war-torn country, and then buy the replacements off the States.He also imposed a 50-day deadline for Russia to agree to peace – or threatened to impose 100% sanctions on US.It follows the president’s growing frustration with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, as he refuses to compromise on his war goals and stop attacking Ukraine.Unsurprisingly, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte – who famously called Trump “daddy” last month – immediately praised the announcement.“Mr President, dear Donald, this is really big. This is really big,” he said while sat next to Trump in the Oval Office.President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington.After praising the news as a “significant shift”, UK defence secretary John Healey is hosting 50 allied nations on Monday to discuss the proposal, urging them to launch a “50-day drive” to get the required weapons to Ukraine to force Putin to negotiate.But senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme, Keir Giles, seemed less convinced by Trump’s proposal when speaking to HuffPost UK.He said: “One week on from Trump’s ‘big announcement’, it has become increasingly clear that the fan-fared announcement of new weapons supplies to Ukraine was an idea rather than a plan.”As Giles noted, very few details had actually been hashed out by the time Trump declared the news to the international press, particularly when it comes to the Patriot air defence system meant to counter tactical ballistic missiles.Even the president acknowledged at the time that he had “not agreed on the number” of weapons which would be sent over to Kyiv.Giles said: “Rather than Patriot missile batteries being ready to move as Trump suggested, it’s only now that the details are being thrashed out of what can come from where and who will pay for it and how.”Nato’s top military officer in Europe and the Commander of US European Command, Alexus Grynkewich, warned just last week that the defence alliance is yet to build many of these Patriot systems.“I’m not going to reveal to the Russians or anyone else the exact numbers of weapons that we’re transferring or when those will happen, but what I will say is that preparations are underway,” he said.Giles tore into the lack of European unity behind the plan, too.He told HuffPost UK: “Nato secretary general Mark Rutte listed six nations that were supposedly involved in the scheme – a roll-call of the usual northern European countries that take support for Ukraine seriously, plus Canada – but it’s not clear how much had been agreed with them in advance, or why Rutte was unwilling or unable to inject a note of reality into last week’s press conference.”Rutte said the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Canada were all on board with the plan.But France, where Britain’s pro-Ukraine “coalition of the willing” will be based, was notably not mentioned.French president Emmanuel Macron has been calling for Europeans to build up their own defence industrial base by buying locally, and so is not expected to join the plan.Hungary and Italy are reportedly refusing to pay into the scheme, too.Rutte also claimed that Germany is “massively” invested in the plan – that’s not necessarily a surprise, considering German officials told POLITICO that the initiative actually came from them.Even German chancellor Friedrich Merz has poured cold water on the delivery element of the plan, saying these weapons will “have to be transported, they have to be set up; that is not a question of hours, it is a question of days, perhaps weeks.”So perhaps Trump’s plan has been over-hyped – which would explain why Russia initially responded with its usual nonchalance.Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters last week that there would only be further rifts in Europe “because of how much money is needed to pay”.“Nothing will be left for their own citizens,” he said.And Russia insisted it was not going to budge with its goals on Sunday, slapping down Trump’s 50-day goals by warning: “This is a long process, it requires effort and it is not easy.“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear.”It looks like Trump may have to follow up on his stern words with some actual action if he wants any results from Russia.Related...Trump Shares Utterly Unhinged AI Video Of Obama Arrest In Oval OfficeTrump's Calendar Girls Party Had Only One Other Guest: Jeffrey EpsteinTrump Boldly Claims The ‘Jeffrey Epstein Hoax’ Has Boosted His Approval Rating ‘Significantly’

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