President Donald Trump told NBC News in a Thursday night interview that NATO will foot the bill for U.S.-supplied Patriot missile shipments to Ukraine.

NATO will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a U.S. Army general told Reuters.

The variants of the Lockheed Martin-made F-35 are the only fifth-generation fighter aircraft available to Western militaries.

Trump, however, has long been a NATO skeptic. He has excoriated NATO as a financial drain on the United States, and it was reported that several times during his first term he even privately threatened to withdraw from it.

As Russia intensifies its assault on Ukraine, NATO and European countries need to increase production of long-range weapons, said Maj. Gen. John Rafferty to Reuters. “The Russian army is

Romania has said it will acquire the Iron Dome missile defense system used by Israel to protect the NATO country from short-range missiles. Defense minister Ionuț Moșteanu told Romanian television that a deal would be signed this year with manufacturer Rafael "to defend our cities."

President Trump announces arrangement where NATO pays for US weapons sent to Ukraine, as Russian strikes intensify across Ukraine, including an attack on a maternity hospital.