Donald Trump has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy should not bomb Moscow. His statement came soon after the Financial Times (£) reported he had asked Zelenskyy whether he could bomb Moscow, and privately encouraged Ukraine to step up deep strikes on Russia. “No, he shouldn’t target Moscow,” the US president said on Tuesday when asked if the Ukrainian president should attack the Russian capital. Asked if he intended to supply Ukraine with weapons that could reach deeper into Russian territory, Trump replied: “We’re not looking to do that.”
Ukraine on Tuesday was waiting for further details of the “billions of dollars” worth of US military equipment promised by Donald Trump, amid confusion as to how many Patriot air defence systems will be sent. On Monday, Trump said an unnamed country was ready to immediately provide “17 Patriots”. Ukraine is believed so far to possess six functioning Patriot air defence “batteries” – the truck-based radar and launch systems that fire the missiles. It was unclear if Trump was referring to the launch systems, the interceptor missiles that are their ammunition, or whether he understood the difference.
