a military columnist for the German newspaper BILD, Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine , calling it not only politically but also economically controversial. He wrote about this in his article dated April 16.
According to Roepke, Ukraine desperately needs new weapons to protect the civilian population from massive Russian shelling. The analyst recalled the recent attacks on Kryvyi Rih and Sumy, including a strike on a playground and an area near a university.
Since the Patriot are produced only in the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv is ready to purchase weapons with its own funds — including frozen Russian assets — and with the support of European partners. According to him, these are weapons packages worth up to $50 billion.
However, Roepke notes, even this offer did not convince Donald Trump. Answering a journalist's question about a possible deal during a meeting with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on April 14, Trump hinted that he saw no point in military aid:
"He always wants missiles, you know. When you start a war, you have to understand that you can win it. You can't start a war with someone who is 20 times bigger and expect them to just give you missiles," the former US president said.
Roepke believes that Trump's approach is not only politically dangerous, but also contradicts business logic: "Even from a purely economic point of view, the refusal to sell weapons to Ukraine looks illogical. The US has lost a chance to earn billions of dollars.".
The analyst also cites information from Bloomberg , according to which the US has already reduced the amount of Ukraine's obligations to return aid under the minerals agreement from $300 billion to $100 billion.
"It seems that Trump is more concerned about symbolism than income. And this is to the advantage of the aggressor," Röpke concluded.
Trump's comments have sparked outrage among Ukrainian politicians. In particular, MP Mariana Bezugla on April 15 called the US president's statements a reason to review diplomatic relations with Washington and accused the US of condoning Russian aggression.
Earlier, Trump also wrote on his social network Truth Social that President Zelensky and former White House chief of staff Joe Biden are responsible for the war in Ukraine.
