Trump pausing U.S. military aid to Ukraine, official says
Washington has been a key backer in 3-year fight against Russia
U.S. President Donald Trump has paused all military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, a White House official said Monday.
"[The] president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution," said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The White House had no immediate comment on the scope and amount of aid affected or how long the pause would last. The Pentagon could not provide further details.
Zelenskyy's office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment nor did the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington.
News of the pause was also reported by other major news agencies, including The Associated Press, BBC News and CBS News.
The move comes after Trump upended U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia upon taking office in January, adopting a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow — and after an explosive confrontation with Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, in which Trump criticized him for being insufficiently grateful for Washington's backing in the war with Russia.
The U.S. president aired further public frustration with Zelenskyy on Monday, via a post on his Truth Social site, slamming comments his Ukrainian counterpart made to suggest that an end to the war may be "very, very far away."
Beyond the friction between the two presidents, Trump has pressed Ukraine to agree to give the U.S. access to its minerals, as a form of what Trump described as "equalization" for aid. So far, Ukraine has not signed any such arrangement, though Trump suggested Monday that a deal to open up Ukraine's minerals to U.S. investment could still be reached despite his frustration with Kyiv.
Earlier Monday, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former Ukrainian prime minister, spoke to CBC's Power & Politics about the tensions between Trump and Zelenskyy.
He said cutting military aid to Ukraine would be "a clear-cut way" for Trump to put its fate in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Michael "Mick" Mulroy, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defence, says any halt in aid would hurt Ukraine's battlefield capabilities and could lessen Russia's interest in participating in talks to end the war.
"It could actually extend this war substantially," he told ABC News on Monday. "Russia will have less of an incentive to come back to the table."
Democrats said the pausing of aid to Ukraine was dangerous and ill-advised.
Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, who is co-chair of the Congressional EU Caucus, said the decision "is reckless, indefensible and a direct threat to our national security."
The advocacy group Razom for Ukraine likewise condemned the move, saying in a statement Trump "is hanging Ukrainians out to dry and giving Russia the green light to keep marching west."
Under former U.S. president Joe Biden, Washington had been a strong backer of Ukraine's fight against the Russian invasion.
Biden was in office when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine and its neighbour have been locked in all-out war ever since.
The war has killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine and, as Zelenskyy said last month, more than 45,000 of its soldiers.
But Ukraine has also brought the war to Russia, with long-range drone strikes and the capture of a slice of the Kursk region on the Russian side of the border.
Trump had previously claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. Yet six weeks into his presidency, the war still rages.
Malcolm Rifkind, a former U.K. foreign secretary, said the recent blow-up between Trump and Zelenskyy won't be helpful in getting Trump close to achieving a central goal of his new administration.
"His great ambition at the beginning of his presidency is to negotiate, with Putin, a ceasefire," he told journalist Christiane Amanpour in an interview.
"Now, even if that negotiation seemed to be successful, it cannot be implemented unless Zelenskyy agrees," said Rifkind.
With files from The Associated Press and CBC News