US President Donald Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine following his recent confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a White House official has confirmed, further widening the rift that has developed between these former allies.
This development comes after Mr. Trump altered US policy towards Ukraine and Russia since taking office in January, taking a more conciliatory approach toward Moscow.
It follows a heated exchange with President Zelensky in the White House on Friday, where Mr. Trump admonished him for not showing enough gratitude for the US support in the conflict with Russia.
“President Trump has made it clear that his focus is on achieving peace. We require our partners to share this commitment as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure it is driving us toward a solution,” stated the official, who requested anonymity.
Democrats in the US Congress condemned this decision.
“By suspending military aid to Ukraine, President Trump has opened the door wide for Putin to escalate his violent aggression against innocent Ukrainians. The consequences will certainly be catastrophic,” remarked Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The US’s decision regarding Ukrainian aid bolsters Russia’s standing and complicates the path to peace, French junior minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, expressed this morning.
Halting arms shipments to Ukraine makes peace “more distant, as it only empowers the aggressor on the ground, which is Russia,” Mr. Haddad stated on France 2.
Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, remarked that Mr. Trump’s pause in military aid appears to suggest that the US president is pressuring Ukraine to concede.
“On the surface, this seems quite negative. It appears as if he is nudging us toward capitulation, which means accepting Russia’s demands,” he commented.
A meeting involving Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and JD Vance turned confrontational last Friday.
Yesterday, Mr. Trump reiterated that Mr. Zelensky should exhibit more appreciation for US support after reacting strongly to an Associated Press report where Mr. Zelensky mentioned that the end of the war was “very, very far away.”
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not tolerate it for much longer!” Mr. Trump expressed on Truth Social, using an alternative spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name.
Trump: Zelensky should be ‘more appreciative’ of US
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Since Russia’s invasion three years ago, the US Congress has approved a total of $175 billion in assistance for Ukraine, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Trump administration took over with $3.85 billion in Congressionally approved authority to access US arms stocks for Ukraine, but the escalating conflict between the US and Ukraine makes it seem unlikely that this assistance will be utilized.
Yesterday’s decision also seemed to stop the delivery of military equipment previously approved by former president Joe Biden, including munitions, missiles, and other systems.
However, Mr. Trump indicated that an agreement regarding Ukraine’s minerals for US investment could still be possible, as European leaders proposed ideas for a truce in Russia’s ongoing war with its neighbor.
The Trump administration viewed a minerals agreement as a way for the US to recuperate some of the tens of billions of dollars it has provided to Ukraine in financial and military aid since the Russian invasion three years ago.
When asked if the deal was off the table, Mr. Trump replied at the White House: “No, I don’t believe so.”
He characterized it as a “great deal for us” and stated that he would provide an update during his address to a joint session of Congress tonight.
Excavators extract rare earth minerals from the soil in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region.
In a Fox News interview, Vice President JD Vance urged Mr. Zelensky to accept the minerals agreement.
“If you seek genuine security guarantees and want to ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the best security assurance is to provide Americans with economic opportunities concerning Ukraine’s future,” Mr. Vance articulated.
Mr. Zelensky has made it clear that any ceasefire must include explicit security guarantees from the West to preclude future Russian attacks, which currently occupy about 20% of Ukrainian territory. Mr. Trump has declined to offer such guarantees.
The US’s choice raised numerous questions, including whether munitions for the weapons systems already provided can still be delivered or if the US would continue to share intelligence with Ukraine on target identification and missile launches.
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Key members of congressional oversight committees were not informed of this decision, including those in the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Razom for Ukraine, a Ukrainian advocacy organization, criticized the White House’s decision on military aid.
“By abruptly halting military assistance to Ukraine, President Trump is abandoning Ukrainians and allowing Russia the green light to proceed further west,” the organization stated in a release.
It remains unclear whether munitions for the already delivered weapons systems can now be supplied.
Before the White House’s decision to pause aid, European nations were gathering in support of Mr. Zelensky and endeavoring to formulate a peace plan.
Privately, and at times publicly, officials are expressing anger at what they perceive as a betrayal of Ukraine, which has enjoyed strong backing from the US since Russia’s invasion.
At a summit in London, several world leaders agreed to develop a peace proposal to present to the US.
France, Britain, and possibly other European nations have offered to send troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire—something Moscow has dismissed—but they have stated that they would require support from the US as a “backstop.”
However, the Hungarian government, a vocal critic of EU sanctions against Moscow and the bloc’s financial and military assistance for Ukraine, remarked on Mr. Trump’s military aid suspension: “The US president and the Hungarian government have a shared perspective: rather than continuing weapons shipments and prolonging the war, a ceasefire and peace negotiations need to take place as soon as possible.”
