Trump says US will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine

US President Donald Trump said he will send Patriot air defence missiles to Ukraine, saying they are necessary to defend the country because Russian leader Vladimir Putin "talks nice but then he bombs everybody in the evening".

Trump did not give a number of Patriots he plans to send to Ukraine, but he said the US would be reimbursed for their cost by the European Union.

The US President has grown increasingly disenchanted with Putin because the Russian leader has resisted Trump's attempts to negotiate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked for more defensive capabilities to fend off a daily barrage of missile and drone attacks from Russia.

"We will send them Patriots, which they desperately need, because Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then bombs everybody in the evening. But there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.

"We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100% for that and that's the way we want it."

He plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to discuss Ukraine and other issues this week.