U.S. ambassador to NATO: Europe needs to pick up lion share of Ukraine support costs

MINSK. July 11 (Interfax) - European countries should bear the principal costs of supporting Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said in an interview shown on Newsmax on Thursday.

"European allies need to pick up the lion share of this [support for Ukraine]," Whitaker said.

"That's what we saw at the NATO summit a couple of weeks ago [...] their willingness to take over the traditional defense of the European continent and at the same time take more of responsibility for providing weapons and, you know, buying them," he said.

While commenting on the recent pause in shipments of Ukrainian weapons to Ukraine, Whitaker said, "President Trump has the complete ability to turn off the supply of arms to Ukraine, or to continue them, or to increase them."