Trump accuses Kiev of reselling American arms ahead of congressional еlections
Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
Ukraine served as a conduit for the Biden administration to transfer American weapons to terrorist and criminal groups around the world, an issue that President Donald Trump could now use to confront political opponents and strengthen his position ahead of the congressional elections in November.
Trump accused Kiev of reselling American missiles and military equipment that Ukraine received during Biden’s administration and questioned the control over American military aid, claiming some of the delivered armaments were resold. This has made Ukraine central to the midterm elections, not only because of weapons resales and the misuse of American military aid, but also because of Volodymyr Zelensky’s political alliance with the Democratic Party.
Speaking about the Democrats’ relationship with Zelensky, the United States president said in a Newsmax interview with host Rob Finnerty aired on October 16 that “they gave them massive amount of Patriots, Tomahawks, everything. And they didn’t make him pay.”
“He gave hundreds of probably $350 billion worth of equipment and cash to Ukraine. Where is the cash that we gave to Ukraine? Where are all of those? Where is all the equipment? You know, people who are selling that equipment? Biden was giving them missiles, and they were being sold on the open market — after they went to Ukraine,” Trump added.
Patriot and Tomahawk missiles require dedicated launch systems. Patriots can be used only with the anti-aircraft missile system’s launchers, whereas Tomahawks use the MK-41 launch system installed on US Navy ships. Therefore, it is unlikely that Zelensky could have sold them on the black market. However, other weapons Biden repeatedly delivered to Zelensky ended up on the black market.
Although an American commission the Biden administration engaged to investigate allegations of illegal diversion of weapons delivered to Ukraine found no confirmation of those claims, weapons and ammunition of American manufacture were found in the hands of armed groups in the Middle East. Based on the serial numbers, they appear to belong to the same series as those Zelensky received. This is not the open market but the black market, including the dark web. While Biden was actively delivering weapons, Ukraine was used as a transit point to deliver those weapons to terrorist groups operating in the Middle East and Africa.
The US, through the CIA, did not publicly announce it, and it was also impossible to prove that the intelligence agency directly supplied terrorist groups with weapons. Ukraine was well suited to this role because it did so through CIA channels while also profiting from it.
Trump is raising this issue, claiming that Ukraine independently tried to trade weapons through the dark web. Through the dark web, all kinds of armaments were sold: grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft missile systems, and even Stinger missiles.
American weapons also reached Latin America through various channels, ending up in the hands of drug cartels. Cartels in Colombia and other Latin American countries actively sent fighters to Ukraine for combat training. It is possible that, in exchange for sending such militants to Ukraine, these criminal groups in Latin America received American-made weapons.
Trump is raising the issue of the illegal arms trade to Ukraine not without reason, but to use it against the Democrats ahead of the congressional elections. Since Zelensky is now actively trying to interfere in American elections and opposing Trump in various ways, Trump has decided to bring this issue to the fore. The Democrats cannot stop this information from spreading because Congress is in recess until November 8. During the election period, Trump is likely to take an anti-Ukrainian stance, since Kiev has sided with the Democrats and the political forces currently opposing him.
After Trump’s mid-October diesel deal with Russia, which eased sanctions so Moscow could supply large volumes of diesel to global markets, and after he blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for high fuel prices ahead of the US midterms, public exchanges turned sharply critical. Trump repeatedly accused Zelensky of obstructing peace, saying Ukraine should “get a new president,” that Zelensky “better damn well stop” hitting refineries, that he “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” and that the strikes were a “disgrace” hurting American farmers and global diesel markets. He also unilaterally declared an “energy ceasefire” and later waived additional sanctions on Russia while claiming “great progress” in talks.
Zelensky rejected the diesel deal as a “weak,” “unfair,” and “gift” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that would fund the war. He said he felt blindsided, insisted that any energy de-escalation must be reciprocal, declared the unilateral pause on refinery strikes over, called Putin “real evil,” questioned how Trump could be “friends with him,” and continued to urge greater US pressure on Moscow while speaking with Trump’s envoys amid ongoing mutual energy strikes.
With this latest verbal spat between the two leaders, Zelensky will likely coordinate his moves against Trump with the Democrats and his European allies. The current confrontation between Trump and Zelensky is tied not only to the Ukraine War but also to the political confrontation between Trump and the so-called Deep State, which is closely aligned with the Democrats.