The US is suspending military aid to Ukraine as President Donald Trump seeks to increase pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make concessions for a peace deal.
Trump’s decision halts what has been a consistent supply of US military assistance and weapons to Kyiv since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
It comes amid growing tension between Trump and Zelenskyy, as the US president tries to push Ukraine to settle the conflict rapidly with Russia.
A White House official on Monday said: “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.”
The move came after Trump renewed his verbal attack on Zelenskyy on social media and in remarks to reporters at the White House on Monday, following the leaders’ dramatic confrontation in the Oval Office on Friday.
Trump responded angrily to comments from Zelenskyy on Sunday that a deal to end the war was “very, very far away”.
“It should not be that hard a deal to make,” Trump said. “It could be made very fast. Now maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio appeared to suggest that the freeze was tied to a wider diplomatic effort. “We want to get the Russians to a negotiating table. We want to explore whether peace is possible,” Rubio said in a statement, without directly mentioning the suspension.
About a third of total military supplies to Ukraine is from the US but America provides key elements of Ukraine’s armoury that cannot easily be replaced.
The US accounts for the majority of air defence missiles and long-range precision strike capabilities, both critical in repelling and deterring devastating Russian air, drone, missile and bomb attacks.
The US also provides critical military intelligence and weapons-targeting information that other Nato allies cannot match, and the bulk of heavy air lift craft to transport weapons into Ukraine, including those from other partners. It was not immediately clear whether intelligence and logistical support would be affected, a Western official said.
Trump’s decision will add urgency to efforts in many European capitals to bolster their own military support for Kyiv, because an extended pause in US assistance could give Russian forces a big advantage on the battlefield.
The EU on Tuesday proposed a package of €150bn in loans to capitals for defence procurement. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the move could facilitate “immediate military equipment for Ukraine”.
“This [instrument] will help member states to pool demand and to buy together and, of course, with this equipment, member states can massively step up their support to Ukraine,” she said.
The new loans, which von der Leyen said would be enacted under emergency powers, will need approval from a majority of the EU’s 27 capitals. Hungary, which has vowed to block direct EU support to Kyiv, is expected to be supportive, as the new measure is aimed at pumping money into the EU defence industry in general terms, diplomats told the FT.
In another sign of a European rearmament push, the European Investment Bank is to change its investment policy to include military infrastructure such as military bases and helicopters, according to a letter seen by the Financial Times.
The bank’s president Nadia Calviño wrote to leaders ahead of a summit on Thursday dedicated to defence funding to propose “a further adjustment to the group’s eligibility criteria to ensure that excluded activities are more precisely defined and as limited as possible”.
Weapons and ammunition would remain excluded, however.
In Kyiv, the chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, described Trump’s move as “unbelievable”. “Cutting off military aid is too much,” he said.
The Institute for the Study of War in Washington on Monday night warned that the decision to cut off US aid would “directly undermine President Trump’s stated goal of achieving a sustainable peace in Ukraine”.
“Russia would leverage the cessation of US aid to Ukraine to seize more territory in Ukraine and attempt to exhaust European support — the approach Putin has outlined in his theory of victory,” it added.
In Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, told reporters on Tuesday that the US pause in military aid to Ukraine could push Kyiv to join a peace process.
“This would probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace,” Peskov said, according to RIA Novosti. Russia expects the US to lift sanctions as Trump moves to normalise relations with Moscow, Peskov added.
Trump’s move comes after a weekend of intense diplomatic activity in Europe, including a summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and a month-long ceasefire plan proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, to try to forge a settlement on better terms for Kyiv.
In a sign that the UK was blindsided by the move, Starmer told MPs on Monday that he did not believe the US was preparing to pull
support from Ukraine. “As I understand it, that is not its position,”
he said when asked about reports that Trump was preparing to halt aid.
In an interview with Fox News presenter Sean Hannity on Tuesday, US vice-president JD Vance said his “message to Ukrainians” was: “Donald Trump is the only game in town.”
Vance, who joined Trump in berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday, also called on the Ukrainian president to “engage seriously on the details” of a deal, adding: “The very best security is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine.”
Trump has been trying to agree a deal with Kyiv for access to Ukrainian critical minerals. But the agreement, which US officials see as pivotal to Washington’s backing for Ukraine, was postponed after the clash in the White House.
However, Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, on Monday said he spoke to Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, and believed the signing of the deal was imminent.
Fitzpatrick wrote on X ahead of the announcement: “We are 100% getting this train back on the tracks. This mineral deal will be signed in short order, which will lead to a strong long-term economic partnership between the United States and Ukraine, and which will ultimately and naturally lead to security assistance.”
Democrats immediately attacked the suspension of military aid and called for it to be reversed.
“Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally pause funding for Ukraine is reckless, indefensible, and a direct threat to our national security,” said Brendan Boyle, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania.
“The world is watching, and we cannot afford to let Trump’s reckless actions undermine our commitment to our allies and democracy itself.”
Additional reporting by Fabrice Deprez in Kyiv, William Sandlund in Hong Kong and Mari Novik and Lucy Fisher in London
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