The United States is suspending military aid to Ukraine, days after U.S. President Donald Trump clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, a White House official confirmed to Reuters on Monday.
“The president has made it clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal. We are pausing and reviewing our assistance to make sure it contributes to a solution,” the official said. Zelensky’s office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
“This is not a permanent cutoff of aid, it is a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying. Bloomberg reported that the delivery of all U.S. military equipment not currently in Ukraine has been halted, including weapons in transit on planes and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.
–Europe stands by Zelensky, but still needs Trump–
Even after Trump’s public rebuke of the Ukrainian president, European leaders are sticking to the same strategy they have been pursuing since the US president began his second term.
The same applies to Ukraine and wider European security: maintaining American engagement while strengthening European defense efforts. “Do we consider Volodymyr Zelensky an important resistance fighter, a hero? The answer is yes. Should we judge or moralize? Then the answer is no,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told RTL Radio on Monday.
The European strategy was evident at a leaders’ meeting in London on Sunday and is likely to resurface at a European Union summit on Ukraine and defense in Brussels on Thursday. Leaders, including NATO chief Mark Rutte, have urged Zelensky to find ways to rebuild ties with Trump.
And British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said Europe was ready to do most of the work related to security guarantees for Ukraine after the peace deal, nevertheless stressed that they would need “strong American support”, which Trump has not yet promised.
–Ukraine’s initial reaction: We never imagined this in our worst nightmare–
Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian MP from President Zelensky’s party, said he was “shocked” by the news.
Speaking to the BBC’s Newsday, he said: “What is happening is unbelievable. I could not have imagined in my worst nightmare that Trump would suspend military aid to Ukraine at a time when we need it most.”
Merezhko believes that US President Donald Trump is trying to push Ukraine and Europe aside in order to reach a deal with Russia.
“I think Mr Trump should seriously think about how he will be remembered. For me, this is a day that will go down in history as shameful,” he concluded.
