WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump said that the United States would send more weapons to Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s invasion, arguing that Moscow’s recent assault on Ukrainian cities left him with little choice.

Trump’s comments appeared to signal a reversal from the president after his administration paused some arms transfers to the country just last week, raising fears that the United States was retrenching its support. Instead, Trump said Monday that he had grown unhappy with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has frustrated Trump’s hopes to broker a ceasefire.

“We’re going to send some more weapons,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves.

“They’re getting hit very hard,” he continued. “So many people are dying in that mess.”

Those statements were a remarkable turnaround for Trump, who has often expressed skepticism of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Just months ago, he dressed down President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine in the Oval Office, claiming he had been insufficiently grateful for America’s support.

After Trump’s remarks, the Pentagon confirmed late Monday that the flow of munitions to Ukraine was resuming.

“At President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops,” Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement.

It was unclear if the weapons whose delivery had been paused — including Patriot interceptors — would now be sent to Ukraine, or whether the military would send different weapons.

The White House acknowledged last week that the administration had paused the delivery of some air defense interceptors and precision-guided bombs and missiles to Ukraine, citing Pentagon concerns that U.S. weapons stockpiles were dwindling. The decision was described at the time by a White House spokesperson as an assessment of munitions provided around the globe.

But Friday, Russia attacked Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with the largest number of drones and missiles launched in a single barrage so far in the war, according to the Ukrainian air force. The attack came just hours after a phone call between Trump and Putin, which Trump told reporters afterward had not made “any progress,” a blunt assessment from the president about a relationship he typically describes in rosier terms.

“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “He’s very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Trump spoke with Zelenskyy on Friday, and the Ukrainian president called it a “very important and fruitful conversation.”

“We discussed the current situation, including Russian airstrikes and the broader frontline developments,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media. “President Trump is very well-informed, and I thank him for his attention to Ukraine. We spoke about opportunities in air defense and agreed that we will work together to strengthen protection of our skies.”

The issue of whether to supply military aid to Ukraine has bitterly divided Republicans for months, with fierce opposition coming from some of Trump’s most vocal supporters.

Ukrainians on Tuesday welcomed Trump’s announcement that he would send additional weapons to fend off Russian attacks.

Lawmakers and analysts in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, said they were not expecting a full turnaround on military assistance, given Trump’s earlier resistance to helping Ukraine and his fickleness on continuing military aid already funded by Congress.

But Iryna Gerashchenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament for the opposition European Solidarity Party, wrote on social media that the announcement was “a signal of political change.”

“The increasing intensity of Russian attacks and growing pressure from allies in Europe, particularly Germany and France, are forcing the White House to change,” she added.

A former Ukrainian prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, posted, “Thank you, Mr. President!”

Others aired skepticism that arms supplies would continue, given Trump’s earlier zigzags on weapons shipments and his wobbly backing for sanctions on Russia.

Under the Trump administration, Ukraine can no longer count on U.S.-donated weapons as American policy focuses on the Middle East and Pacific region, said Maksym Skrypchenko, president of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center, a research group in Kyiv.

“It’s not the ideal strategy we would like to see,” Skrypchenko said. “But we need to adapt to it, and we should find a place for Ukraine in that strategy.”

The latest turnaround raises hopes that Ukrainian air defenses will obtain sufficient Patriot interceptors to counter ballistic missile attacks and that frontline soldiers will receive ammunition to hold the line. Longer term, Zelenskyy has not asked for a resumption of arms donations but for approval to purchase U.S. weapons directly from American companies with financing from Europe.

In another positive signal for Ukraine, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a social media post Monday that he expected a sanctions bill to progress in the Senate. The bill could impose what Graham has called “bone crushing” secondary sanctions on countries trading with Russia to use as leverage in ceasefire talks. “It’s time to end this bloodbath,” Graham wrote.

After Zelenskyy met with U.S. businesses operating in Ukraine, including Boeing and Baker Hughes, to seek support in lobbying the Trump administration, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyiv issued a statement July 4 appealing for more American military aid.

The statement asked Trump to “protect American businesses in Ukraine by urgently providing the defense equipment needed to stop these attacks.” More than half of the about 600 members of the chamber, the statement said, have suffered damage to offices, factories or other assets from the Russian invasion.

Members of parliament in Kyiv have for weeks been saying that the Trump administration’s ceasefire talks have failed and that more pressure must be brought to bear on Moscow.

Halyna Yanchenko, an independent lawmaker who caucuses with Zelenskyy’s political party, said in an interview that Ukraine had succeeded in demonstrating to the Trump administration that Moscow, not Kyiv, was to blame for stalled talks.

Russia’s strategy has been to deplete Ukraine’s air defense ammunition while trying to win ground in the east, Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament, said in an interview. Kyiv has so far maintained Trump’s engagement despite his administration’s focus on the Middle East and China, and even with little apparent hope of a swift solution in Ukraine.

“He now realizes he cannot expect Putin to negotiate seriously,” Merezhko said of Trump.