Washington D.C. / Moscow – July 8, 2025 – President Donald Trump announced Monday that the United States will send additional weapons to Ukraine, a significant shift from Washington’s previous week’s stance that had seen a halt in some weapon shipments. This earlier pause had reportedly caught Ukrainian officials off guard and left them scrambling for clarity.
Trump’s pledge comes as Russia claims new gains in its grinding war against its neighbor, now in its fourth year. The previous aid freeze posed a serious challenge for Kyiv, which is currently enduring some of Russia’s largest missile and drone attacks since the conflict began.
“We’re going to have to send more weapons — defensive weapons primarily,” Trump told reporters at the White House. He acknowledged that Ukraine is “getting hit very, very hard,” but also stated he was “not happy” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has shown little willingness to end the conflict despite pressure from Trump.
Russian Advances and Ukrainian Response
The US president’s commitment to more arms for Ukraine followed Moscow’s claim Monday that its forces had captured the village of Dachne in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region. This marks Russia’s first claimed village capture in this important industrial mining territory, which has faced increasing Russian air attacks. Russia’s Defense Ministry stated that Dachne is less than a kilometer from Dnipropetropvs’s administrative border with Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Last month, Moscow had already reported its forces crossing into the Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in the campaign.
Russian forces appear to have made crossing the regional border a key strategic objective in recent months; deeper advances there could pose significant logistical and economic problems for Ukraine. However, Kyiv has so far denied any firm Russian foothold in Dnipropetrovsk. Ukraine’s military stated earlier Monday that its forces “repelled” attacks in the region, including “in the vicinity” of Dachne.
Dnipropetrovsk is not among the five Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Crimea) that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory. Ukrainian military expert Oleksiy Kopytko described the situation in Dnipropetrovsk as “difficult” for Kyiv’s forces, suggesting Russia aims to create some kind of buffer zone in the region. He added that Ukrainian troops are “holding their ground quite steadily.”
Shifts in US Aid Policy
The White House had announced last week that it was halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. No details were provided on which specific weapons programs were affected, but the decision was attributed to a review of US defense needs and military assistance to foreign countries. This pause took Ukrainian officials by surprise and sparked concerns in Kyiv, which has long feared a reduction in US aid since Trump’s return to the White House in January. During his previous campaign, Trump had criticized the tens of billions of dollars in support and weapons sent by the Biden administration.
Under the Biden administration, Washington had committed over $65 billion in military assistance to Ukraine. Since taking office for the second time, Trump has not announced any new military aid packages for Kyiv. Instead, the Republican president has emphasized pushing the two sides towards peace talks, including through phone calls with Putin. However, the Russian leader has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory for an end to the war.
Ukraine’s Priorities and Ongoing Attacks
Ahead of Trump’s remarks on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that air defense remains the “top priority for protecting lives,” and his country is counting on partners to “fully deliver on what we have agreed.”
Overnight into Tuesday, explosions were reported in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, as confirmed by Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych on Telegram, who added that the “threat of drones” was ongoing. Mykolaiv regional governor Vitaliy Kim reported that shelling caused a fire on the city’s outskirts and wounded a 51-year-old man.
