The latest Trump-style arms deal to Ukraine

It's one of those deals which only someone like Donald Trump could have negotiated. Under the latest arms scheme for Ukraine which was announced some weeks ago but is now actually happening, the US is selling warfighting weapons to Europe in order for the Europeans to give them to Ukraine. It's a huge boost for US defence companies at no cost to the American taxpayer, because Europe is paying all the bills. It's an extraordinary arrangement, because Trump can also claim that the US is no longer arming Ukraine,even though it patently is. Putin won't be fooled but it really is quite clever. The first batch of US air-launched long-range cruise missiles have just been sent to the Ukrainian air force but via the bill payers which in this case are Denmark and The Netherlands. Total amount is $825 million so it's not a sneeze. Trump has claimed that the US has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on arms for Ukraine. Actually the total figure is around $67 billion. But he came to the White House with the promise that the open-chequebook arrangement with the Kyiv government would stop, and with his canny bill-paying arrangement, he has kind of stuck to his guns, as it were. Anyway, Ukraine gets what it needs to carry on the fight with Russia, and Trump continues trying to end the war by cuddling up to Putin. It might work, or it might not. So far, it definitely hasn't.