US suspends all military aid to Ukraine in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row

 

US suspends all military aid to Ukraine in wake of Trump-Zelenskyy row

 

Decision affects ammunition, vehicles and other equipment including weapons in transit

 

Andrew Roth in Washington and agencies

Tue 4 Mar 2025 03.55 CET

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/04/us-military-aid-ukraine-pause-trump-zelenskyy-updates

 

The Trump administration has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin.

 

The decision affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president.

 

It comes after a dramatic blow-up in the White House on Friday during which Donald Trump told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he was “gambling with” a third world war. The Ukrainian president was told to come back “when he is ready for peace”.

 

A senior administration official told Fox News that “this is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause”. Bloomberg reported that all US military equipment not in Ukraine would be held back, including weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland. It added that Trump had ordered the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, to execute the pause.

 

The decision followed a White House meeting that included Hegseth and the vice-president, JD Vance, along with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio; the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard; and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

 

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” a White House official told the Washington Post. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

 

Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said Trump appeared to be pushing Ukarine towards capitulation. “To stop aid now means to help [Russian president Vladimir] Putin,” Merezhko told Reuters. “On the surface, this looks really bad. It looks like he is pushing us towards capitulation, meaning [accepting] Russia’s demands”

 

Razom for Ukraine, a Ukrainian advocacy group, said: “By abruptly halting military assistance to Ukraine, President Trump is hanging Ukrainians out to dry and giving Russia the green light to continue marching west. Razom for Ukraine urges the White House to immediately reverse course, resume military aid and pressure Putin to end his horrific invasion.”

 

The US Congress has approved $175bn in total assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. In December, right before leaving office, Joe Biden announced an additional $5.9bn in security and budget assistance.

 

US assistance to Ukraine includes military aid, budgetary assistance largely delivered through a World Bank trust fund, and other funds that had been delivered through the US Agency for International Development, which has been throttled by the Trump White House.

 

Some of the money sent by the US to Ukraine helps the country pay salaries of teachers and doctors, and keeps the government running, allowing it to focus on fighting Russia’s invasion.

 

Ukraine weapons assistance from the US has been facilitated through two programs: presidential drawdown authority (PDA), which allows the president to quickly transfer weapons and equipment from US stocks to foreign countries without the need for congressional approval; and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), where military equipment is procured from the defense industry.

 

In total the US has pledged $31.7bn worth of weapons aid to Ukraine through PDA. The vast majority – well over $20bn according to a Reuters analysis – has been shipped.

 

The announcement pertains mainly to aid that had been previously approved but not yet disbursed. Trump has not approved any new aid under his own presidential authority since taking office and a new congressional aid package appears unlikely, at least in the near term.

 

Earlier on Monday Trump had expressed new outrage at Zelenskyy for saying that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”.

 

In a post to social media on Monday, Trump posted a link to an Associated Press story outlining Zelenskyy’s comments and said: “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!

 

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US. Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”

 

Later on Monday, Trump said that Zelenskyy “won’t be around very long” unless he succumbed to pressure and made a deal on US terms.

 

The Trump administration was also reported to be drawing up a plan on Monday to restore ties with Russia and lift sanctions on the Kremlin.

 

The White House has asked the state and treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration’s broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, Reuters reported, citing a US official and another person familiar with the matter.

 

In an interview recorded on Monday before the announcement of the suspension, Vance told Fox News that giving the US an economic interest in the future of Ukraine would serve as a security guarantee – a reference to the minerals deal about which Zelenskyy had been summoned to Washington, only to be berated and turned out of the White House.

 

“If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said.

 

Reuters contributed to this report