Donald Trump buys time with weapons for Kyiv

There was rejoicing when US President Donald Trump announced that he was going to let Ukraine have weapons after all, but it was conspicuously contained joy. Half-smiles and sighs of relief were plentiful; cheers were absent or faked.

- Gwynne Dyer

The Ukrainians were relieved because this is the first time they will be getting weapons actually ordered by Mr Trump. The stop-go dribble of arms that the US has sent Ukraine at intervals in the past five months was really the tail-end of Joe Biden’s last package, although Mr Trump had to approve each shipment.

What Mr Trump is willing to send now remains unclear, but at least it’s on his own initiative, and US$10 billion (325.1 billion baht) has been mentioned. And Ukrainians don’t care that the money will really be provided by other Nato members, who will buy the weapons from the US but pass them to Ukraine's armed forces.

What does concern Ukrainians is that Mr Trump's threatened “secondary tariffs” (more accurately secondary sanctions) on countries like India and China that are still buying cut-rate Russian oil and gas and supporting Moscow's war economy won't kick in for 50 more days.

That gives Russian President Vladimir Putin 49 more days to bomb Kiev and other Ukrainian cities with impunity, and Mr Trump is notorious for shifting his deadlines to later dates. (TACO, as they say - “Trump always chickens out”) Moreover, Mr Trump warned Ukraine not to attack Moscow in return.