Ukrainians woke up on Tuesday to news that the Trump administration has paused military aid for their fight against Russia's invasion, days after a disastrous Oval Office row that has deepened a rift between Kyiv and the White House.
US President Donald Trump directed the US to pause all assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Russia.
The decision appears to halt arms deliveries approved under the Biden administration, but it was not clear whether deliveries of ammunition for weapons systems already in Ukraine would be affected.
“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump's side,” said a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a daring military incursion in August 2024 to improve its hand in negotiations. The soldier spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely about his thoughts as he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Others said the move has left even greater confusion about Donald Trump’s intentions.
“The problem is that it’s unclear what Trump wants and what the purpose of his actions is,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. “As of today, it appears that he is increasingly siding with Russia and trying to pressure Ukraine into accepting Russia’s demands.”
“This looks terrible—forcing the weaker side to accept the terms of the stronger aggressor,” he told The Associated Press.
Kyiv has feared the possibility of aid being stopped to Ukraine ever since Trump took office, and the US-Ukraine relationship has taken a downturn in recent weeks as Trump’s team launched bilateral talks with Russia over the war in Ukraine and Trump’s demeanor toward Zelenskyy has become increasingly dismissive.
Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who chairs the defense committee in the lower house of Russian parliament, predicting that Ukraine would exhaust its current ammunition reserves within months. “We need to keep up the pressure and continue to target their bases and depots with long-range precision weapons to destroy the stockpiles,” he said.
Trump said on Monday that he is still interested in signing a deal that would hand over a share of Ukraine's minerals to the United States, an agreement that Zelenskyy has also said he is ready to sign.
“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,” said Razom for Ukraine, a Ukrainian advocacy group. “Razom for Ukraine urges the White House to immediately reverse course, resume military aid and pressure Putin to end his horrific invasion.”
