President Donald Trump announced this week that the United States will sell weapons to European nations that will ultimately help Ukraine, but many of the details are still being hammered out between allies.

Trump, joined in the Oval Office on Monday by North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte, described the agreement as “a very big deal” that amounts to “billions of dollars worth of military equipment.”

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He said the deal would be comprehensive but provided little detail other than highlighting that NATO members would pay for the weapons the U.S. gives up.

“It’s everything. It’s Patriots. It’s all of them. It’s a full complement with the batteries,” the president said.

Trump’s language is in line with his fervent stance that European countries need to become more self-reliant in national security instead of depending on the U.S. All NATO allies except Spain agreed to increase their defense spending target to 5% of GDP, up from the 2% benchmark that had been in place prior.

Rutte noted that Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, and Canada are prepared to participate in this effort to arm Ukraine.

Aside from Patriot missile defense systems and the missiles needed to operate them, it’s unclear what other weapons will be involved in this deal. It’s also unknown if any offensive weapons will be provided in this plan.

“The Pentagon is in contact with NATO countries to determine what weapons will be sold,” a White House official told the Washington Examiner. A Pentagon spokesperson referred the Washington Examiner to the White House.

Trump reportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a call earlier this month if Ukraine could strike Moscow and St. Petersburg if Washington provided offensive capabilities, according to the Financial Times. However, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Newsweek Trump was “merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing.”

European nations could provide Ukraine with weapons from their arsenals and have the U.S. weapons backfill their stockpiles, which would likely get Ukraine weapons the fastest, or they could wait until they receive U.S. weapons and give those to Ukraine, which would, in effect, leave their stockpiles relatively the same and would require more time.

It’s also unclear where the weapons the U.S. will give its NATO allies will come from.

One option is to use the presidential drawdown authority, which allows the president to order the Pentagon to give weapons to another country directly from U.S. stockpiles and use funds to refill them. The U.S. still has about $3.86 billion worth of funds allocated under the former administration that could be used to purchase backfills.

Alternatively, the U.S. could have foreign governments procure weapons from U.S. defense companies through the U.S. government. This would lessen the effect on U.S. stockpiles, but it would take longer to get the weapons to Europe.

The Department of Defense has been keenly aware of the military aid it has given out to allies or expended itself in recent conflicts. It recently paused defensive assistance to Ukraine due to what the department described as a complete review of ongoing U.S. military assistance.

“Are the Europeans going to send Patriots from their stocks to Ukraine, which they’ve done a little bit but they’ve been hesitant to give more because they want to make Uncle Sam ‘Uncle Sucker’ and get us to send their stuff,” Dan Caldwell, a former adviser to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, said on Real America’s Voice. “Is President Trump going to be able to get them to send their stuff first, and then we backfill it for the normal production process? Or are we going to send our stuff to the Europeans immediately to backfill their stocks, and that creates readiness issues across the board?”

The Biden administration, toward the end of former President Joe Biden’s term, decided to allow Ukraine to use U.S.-provided weapons to hit targets deep within Russian territory. The Biden administration had held off on such a decision due to concerns of Russian escalation, but made the policy reversal in response to North Korea’s deployment of thousands of soldiers to fight on Russia’s behalf in the war.

Trump, at that time in December 2024, said he “very vehemently” disagrees with “sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” arguing that, “We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.”

Now, Trump is keeping an open mind to providing longer-range missiles, according to CNN.

Hegseth met with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius at the Pentagon on Monday, where the two leaders further discussed the war and support for Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Tuesday.

The Trump administration has sought to negotiate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but after six months in office, Trump has come to the realization that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been dragging out the negotiations while his forces continue launching attacks on Ukrainian cities.

UKRAINE BENEFITS FROM TRUMP’S FRUSTRATION WITH PUTIN, BUT VOLATILITY REMAINS

“It’s all talk, and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people. It’s got to stop,” Trump said, adding that he thought the two sides were close to a deal four different times, only for “bombs [to be] thrown out that night.”

Trump has threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries trading with Russia if Putin does not agree to end the war within 50 days. The time frame the president laid out will likely fall around the beginning of September, depending on when the administration started the countdown.