US to seek back payment from Europe for Ukraine aid, Trump says

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would ask European nations to pay back the United States for military aid and munitions previously sent to Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia and appeared to signal a halt in sales to allied nations.

In a social media post, Trump also slammed reports of heavily depleted U.S. munition stockpiles amid the separate war in Iran, while adding that the United States was ramping up production and stockpiling munitions.

“We are taking them for ourselves, the U.S.A., rather than selling them to others, but the sales to allies will soon again, begin,” Trump wrote.

“Hundreds of Billions of Dollars was given to Ukraine and NATO, free of charge, that Europe would have paid for — If they were only asked, but we will be asking for that money, though somewhat belatedly!” he added, blaming the administration of his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.

Last year, the United States and NATO developed the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List initiative , under which European countries pay to supply Ukraine with U.S. weapons.

Reuters reported last month that the U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during the Iran war, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts.

Both the wars in Ukraine and Iran — and their economic shocks — could impact whether Trump’s fellow Republicans maintain control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress next year.

On Thursday, oil prices hit fresh six-week highs as the latest U.S. strikes on Iran and renewed ‌Israeli threats against Tehran revived concerns about disruptions to Middle East supplies as vessels remain throttled in the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday sought to partly blame Kyiv’s recent strikes against Russian energy targets for rising oil and gas prices.

“We are going through an energy shock right now due to both the war in Ukraine - because, you know, Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined products, so that is creating upward price pressure on a global basis - and then the conflict in Iran,” he told Fox News in an interview.

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普周四表示，他将要求欧洲国家偿还美国此前向乌克兰提供的军事援助和弹药，以应对与俄罗斯的持续战争，这似乎暗示将停止向盟国出售武器。

特朗普在社交媒体上发帖抨击了有关美国在伊朗战争期间弹药库存严重不足的报道，同时补充说，美国正在加紧生产和储备弹药。

特朗普写道：“我们是在为自己，为美国，攫取这些资源，而不是卖给其他国家，但很快就会再次开始向盟友出售这些资源。”

“数千亿美元无偿地给了乌克兰和北约，而这笔钱本来应该是欧洲自己支付的——如果他们当初开口要的话。不过，我们还是会要求他们支付这笔钱的，虽然有点晚了！”他补充道，并将责任归咎于他的民主党前任乔·拜登的政府。

去年，美国和北约制定了“优先乌克兰需求清单”倡议，根据该倡议，欧洲国家付费向乌克兰提供美国武器。

路透社上个月报道称，美国陆军在伊朗战争期间消耗了大量高精度远程导弹库存，这引发了人们对美军未来冲突战备能力的担忧。

乌克兰战争和伊朗战争及其带来的经济冲击，可能会影响特朗普的共和党同僚明年能否继续控制美国国会两院。

周四，由于美国对伊朗的最新打击以及以色列对德黑兰的再次威胁，人们再次担忧中东供应中断，而船只仍然在霍尔木兹海峡受阻，油价创下六周新高。

美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特周三试图将石油和天然气价格上涨的部分原因归咎于基辅最近对俄罗斯能源目标的袭击。

“我们现在正经历一场能源冲击，这既是由于乌克兰战争——因为你知道，乌克兰决定炸毁俄罗斯的能源资产和成品油，这在全球范围内造成了价格上涨的压力——也是由于伊朗冲突，”他在接受福克斯新闻采访时表示。