President Volodymyr Zelenskyy complained that the Trump administration is diverting weapons to US troops in the Middle East instead of delivering them to Ukraine as promised.
The Ukrainian leader spoke of the 20,000 anti-drone missiles that he had secured under former President Joe Biden’s administration, telling ABC News’ “This Week” of their importance in his nation’s ongoing war with Russia.
“We have big problems with Shaheds,” Zelenskyy said of the Iranian-designed Shahed drones. “We counted on this project — 20,000 missiles. Anti-Shahed missiles. It was not expensive, but it’s a special technology.”
President Zelenskyy:
We counted on 20,000 missiles for Ukraine to fight Shahed drones [promised by the previous US administration].
The United States now moved them to the Middle East.” pic.twitter.com/9cDlsk6Hw7
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 8, 2025
“The Pentagon notified Congress last week that it will be diverting critical anti-drone technology that had been allocated for Ukraine to US Air Force units in the Middle East, according to correspondence obtained by CNN and people familiar with the matter,” CNN reported.
“The technology, proximity fuzes for the rockets Ukraine uses to shoot down Russian drones, was redirected from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) to Air Force Central Command on orders from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to the correspondence dated May 29 and sent to the Senate and House Armed Services committees,” the outlet continued.
During the interview, Zelenskyy was asked about President Donald Trump’s view of Russian President Putin.
“President Trump told our Terry Moran in an interview that he does believe Putin wants peace,” ABC News’ Martha Raddatz said. “You think he’s wrong.”
“With all due respect to President Trump, of course — I think it’s just his personal opinion,” Zelenskyy replied. “I feel strongly that Putin does not want to finish this war. Inside his mind, it’s impossible to end this war without total defeat of Ukraine.
“Trust me, we understand the Russians much better, the mentality of the Russians, than the Americans understand the mentality of Russians. We are neighbors for ages,” he added.
“We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park. This is why I am saying he is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids,” he said.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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