President Trump is set to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte this week on the heels of the U.S. leader announcing plans to sell NATO allies weapons that it can pass on to Ukraine.
In a statement, NATO said Rutte will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday and will also meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and members of Congress.
CBS News reached out to the White House for additional comment.
Sen. Lindsey Graham confirmed on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal will be meeting with Rutte on Monday.
“A turning point regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is coming,” Graham said.
Markus Schreiber / AP
While NATO’s statement did not state a reason for Rutte’s trip, it comes after Mr. Trump teased last week that he would make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, as Ukraine struggles to repel massive and complex air assaults launched by Russian forces.
The president also hinted that his administration will send more defensive weapons to Ukraine amid its war with Russia, days after pausing some weapons shipments.
“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a White House event with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night.
Mr. Trump told reporters Sunday the U.S. would be sending more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, but that he hadn’t yet decided how many.
Graham said on “Face the Nation” to “stay tuned for a plan where America will begin to sell to our European allies tremendous amounts of weapons that can benefit Ukraine.”
“The idea of America selling weapons to help Ukraine is very much in play,” Graham said. “We’ve given Ukraine a lot. We give them the money, we give them military aid. We now have a minerals agreement with Ukraine that’s worth trillions of dollars. So, I don’t want to get ahead of the President, but stay tuned about seized assets. The Europeans want to limit the interest on the assets to go to Ukraine.”
Rubio said Friday that some of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.
“It’s a lot faster to move something, for example, from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a (U.S.) factory and get it there,” Rubio told reporters last week during a visit to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Mr. Trump is also facing calls from Republicans and Democrats, as well as European allies, to support legislation in the Senate that aims to cripple Russia’s oil industry and hit Moscow with U.S. sanctions for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The legislation, in part, calls for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It would have an enormous impact on economic behemoths China and India, which account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade.
Graham said he and Blumenthal have support for “congressional sanctions with a sledgehammer” that will “go after” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economy and “all those countries who prop up the Putin war machine.”
“This congressional package that we’re looking at would give President Trump the ability to impose 500% tariffs on any country that helps Russia, and props up Putin’s war machine,” Graham said. “He can dial it up or down. He can go to 0%, to 500%. He has maximum flexibility. But we’re going after the people who keep Putin in business and additional sanctions on Russia itself. This is truly a sledgehammer available to President Trump to end this war.”
Blumenthal said this is a “critical moment” for these sanctions and “bringing down this sledgehammer at this moment was emphasized by all of the European allies who were at the meeting that Sen. Graham and I attended in Europe.”
Elsewhere, multiple diplomatic sources told CBS News that Mr. Trump is considering authorizing fresh funding for Ukraine for the first time since he took office in January.
The sources indicated the new funding could be intended to send a message to Russia. U.S. officials told CBS News Mr. Trump has $3.85 billion in leftover Biden-era presidential drawdown authority sitting at his fingertips, which could be used to send American military equipment to Ukraine. Former officials also told CBS News the president has the authority to seize around $5 billion in foreign Russian assets and direct the funds to Ukraine, though neither he nor former President Joe Biden has used that power.
Congress has been prepared to act on the legislation, sponsored by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, for some time.
The bill has overwhelming support in the Senate, but Republican leadership has been waiting for Trump to give the green light before moving ahead with it. The White House had expressed some reservations about the legislation.
Margaret Brennan
contributed to this report.
