US President Donald Trump has said he will send weapons, including Patriot air defence systems, for Ukraine via Nato.

Trump told NBC News that in a new deal, “we’re going to be sending Patriots to Nato, and then Nato will distribute that”, adding that Nato would pay for the weapons.

His announcement came after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of having a “positive dialogue” with Trump on ensuring that arms arrived on time, particularly air defence systems.

Zelensky said he had asked for 10 Patriot systems, after a surge in Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in the past week.

Speaking in Rome on Thursday, the Ukrainian leader said Germany was ready to pay for two of the Patriots and Norway for one, while other European partners were also prepared to help.

After a phone-call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin last week, Trump said he was “not happy” that progress had not been made towards ending the war, and he has since complained that Putin’s “very nice” attitude turned out to be meaningless.

During his interview with NBC News, Trump said he would make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, but did not say what it would be about.

He said “Nato is going to reimburse the full cost” for the weapons sent on to Ukraine. Nato is funded through the contributions of its members, including the US.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday that he had urged countries including Germany and Spain to hand over some of their existing Patriot batteries, as they could reach Ukraine faster.

“We have continued to encourage our Nato allies to provide those weapons… since they have them in their stocks, then we can enter into financial agreements… where they can purchase the replacements.”

The US defence department halted some shipments of critical weapons last week, raising concerns in Kyiv that its air defences could run low in a matter of months.

Among the armaments reported to have been placed on pause were Patriot interceptor missiles and precision artillery shells.

Then, as Ukraine was pounded by record numbers of drone attacks this week, Trump said more weapons would be sent: “We have to… They’re getting hit very hard now.”

Zelensky had appealed for the shipments to resume, describing the Patriot systems as “real protectors of life”.

On Tuesday night, Ukraine was hit by a record 728 drones, and the Ukrainian president warned that Russia wanted to increase that to 1,000.

June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in Ukraine in three years, with 232 people killed and more than 1,300 injured, according to the UN.

Since re-entering the White House in January, Trump has pushed to scale back US support for Ukraine.

The US was the biggest source of military aid to Ukraine between the start of 2022 and the end of 2024, giving $69bn (£54.6bn) in that time period, according to German think tank the Kiel Institute.

Trump has also pressed Nato allies to pledge more of their GDP to the security alliance. Last year, all European Nato members pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The US has been urging the two countries to reach an agreement to end the war.

Rubio told reporters that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a “frank” conversation on the sidelines of a meeting in Malaysia on Thursday.

Rubio echoed Trump’s “frustration at the lack of progress at peace talks”, including “disappointment that there has not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict”.

He said the two had shared some new ideas about how the conflict could conclude, which he would take back to Trump.

Rubio declined to elaborate on what Trump said would be a “major” announcement about Russia on Monday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The State Department is firing more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan unveiled by the Trump administration earlier this year, a move that critics say will damage America’s global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad.

The department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the United States, said a senior State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters ahead of individual notices being emailed to affected employees.

Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by The Associated Press. For most affected civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.

“In connection with the departmental reorganization … the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice says. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.”

While lauded by President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and their Republican allies as overdue and necessary to make the department leaner, more nimble and more efficient, the cuts have been roundly criticized by current and former diplomats who say they will weaken U.S. influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.

The layoffs are part of big changes to State Department work

The Trump administration has pushed to reshape American diplomacy and worked aggressively to shrink the size of the federal government, including mass dismissals as part of moves to dismantle whole departments like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Education Department.

USAID, the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency, was absorbed into the State Department last week after the administration dramatically slashed foreign aid funding.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court cleared the way for the layoffs to start, while lawsuits challenging the legality of the cuts continue to play out. The department had formally advised staffers on Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon. The job cuts are large but considerably less than many had feared.

Rubio said officials took “a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”

“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” he told reporters Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he’s attending the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”

He said some of the cuts will be unfilled positions or those that are about to be vacant because an employee took an early retirement.

Critics say the changes will hurt US standing abroad

The American Academy of Diplomacy, an association that includes hundreds of former senior diplomats, said the State Department layoffs “will seriously undermine the ability of our government to understand, explain, and respond to a complex and increasingly contested world.”

“At a time when the United States faces unprecedented challenges from strategic competitors and adversaries, ongoing conflicts in Central Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and emerging security threats, the decision to gut the Department of State’s institutional knowledge and operational capacity is an act of vandalism,” the organization said in a statement last week before the cuts were announced.

It added that Rubio’s explanations for the cuts are “disingenuous, pernicious, and false.”

Michael Rigas, the department’s deputy secretary for management and resources, said in a notice Thursday that staffers would be informed “soon” if they were being laid off.

“First and foremost, we want to thank them for their dedication and service to the United States,” he said.

“Once notifications have taken place, the Department will enter the final stage of its reorganization and focus its attention on delivering results-driven diplomacy,” Rigas added.

The State Department is undergoing a big reorganization

In late May, the State Department notified Congress of an updated reorganization plan, proposing cuts to programs beyond what had been revealed earlier by Rubio and an 18% reduction of staff in the U.S., even higher than the 15% initially floated in April.

The restructuring has been driven in part by the need to find a new home for the remaining functions of USAID, which was an early target of the Trump administration and then-aide Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The State Department is planning to eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America’s two-decade involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling Afghan nationals who worked alongside the U.S. military.

A letter that the department had sent to Congress noted that the reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, saying it is eliminating divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping work. It says Rubio believes “effective modern diplomacy requires streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.”

That letter was clear that the reorganization also is intended to eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way that is incompatible with its priorities and policies.

The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents diplomats, urged the State Department last month to hold off on job cuts.

Notices for a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate positions altogether, “should be a last resort,” association President Tom Yazdgerdi said. “Disrupting the Foreign Service like this puts national interests at risk — and Americans everywhere will bear the consequences.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Department of State at https://apnews.com/hub/us-department-of-state.