NYT: “Washington is disengaging from the war” – US halts arms shipments to Ukraine

The Pentagon has halted some shipments of air defense missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine over concerns that U.S. stockpiles are too low, two people familiar with the decision said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The Pentagon's slowing of some weapons shipments promised to Kyiv under former President Joe Biden's administration occurred in recent days, the people said.

Among the weapons that are being delayed are air defense interceptors that would help knock down inbound Russian drones and missiles and other munitions, the people said.

Russia, which already controls about a fifth of Ukraine, continues to advance gradually, gaining ground in recent weeks in Ukraine's southeastern regions of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, and ramping up air attacks nationwide.

All weapons aid was briefly paused in February with a second longer pause in March. The Trump administration resumed sending the last of the aid approved under Biden.

No new policy has been announced.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Photo: aol.com

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine amid concern about the U.S. military’s stockpiles, according to two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision, NBC reports.

Hegseth ordered the delay weeks after he issued a memo ordering a review of the U.S. stockpile of munitions, which has been depleted after years of the United States’ sending weapons to Ukraine, as well as nearly two years of military operations in the Middle East.

The munitions and other weapons could be held up until the assessment is complete, the two defense officials and two congressional officials said, and if the munitions are in short supply or needed in other parts of the world, they could be held back even longer.

The weapons being delayed include dozens of Patriot interceptors that can defend against incoming Russian missiles, thousands of 155 mm high explosive Howitzer munitions, more than 100 Hellfire missiles, more than 250 precision-guided missile systems known as GMLRS and dozens each of Stinger surface-to-air missiles, AIM air-to-air missiles and grenade launchers, the two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision said.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe." The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump and Zelensky have different goals and different views.
Photo: AP

The deliveries now on hold were all allocated under the Biden administration, and Mr. Trump has not approved new military aid packages for Ukraine. Washington had committed to delivering as much as $11 billion in weapons and equipment to Ukraine this year.

Among the munitions now being withheld are missiles for U.S.-designed Patriot air defense systems, precision artillery rounds and other missiles that Ukraine fires from its American-made F-16 fighter jets. Although it is unclear how many weapons were included, the signal seems clear: Washington is disengaging from the war, ‘The New York Times’ stresses.

“Ukraine is no longer a priority, no longer at the center of the U.S. foreign policy,” Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of the Ukrainian defense and intelligence parliamentary committee, said in a telephone interview. “At least Trump is very honest about this with the Ukrainians.”

Ukrainian officials appeared caught off guard by the announcement. The defense ministry said that it had not received any official notification about the suspension, and that it had “requested a phone conversation with U.S. counterparts to further clarify the details.”

It is unclear how deeply the pause will affect Ukraine, which is now getting weapons from Europe and making its own.

It is a particularly precarious time for Ukraine, because Russia is pounding the country every few days with large-scale air assaults intended to break its air defenses. Moscow now regularly sends hundreds of drones in a single night followed by powerful ballistic missiles that only Patriot missiles can intercept.

In a sign of its concern, Ukraine summoned the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv’s deputy chief of mission, John Ginkel, on Wednesday to discuss “U.S. military assistance and defense cooperation.”

“The Ukrainian side emphasized that any delay or slowing down in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

This is the second pause since President Trump returned to office. In March, the White House briefly halted all military aid to Ukraine after a tense meeting between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Since then, signs of the Trump administration’s disengagement have multiplied, from echoing Kremlin talking points to pushing Ukraine down the list of priorities at last week’s NATO summit in The Hague.

On Wednesday, the Kremlin lauded Washington’s halt in weapons supplies to Ukraine and argued that the move could help bring about an end to the fighting.

“As far as we understand, this decision is due to empty warehouses: low stockpiles of weapons at the warehouses,” Dmitry S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told Russian news agencies. “But in any case, the less weaponry gets sent to Ukraine, the sooner the end of the special military operation is,” he said, using Russia’s official term for the war.

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