Trump administration pauses U.S. military aid to Ukraine

The Trump administration has paused U.S. military aid to Ukraine, the White House confirmed Monday. It’s the latest fallout days after a contentious meeting between President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House erupted into an open dispute in front of TV cameras.

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a White House official told CBS News. “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 U.S. has been a key supplier of weapons for Ukraine as it continues to fend off Russian troops three years after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion three years ago. But Mr. Trump’s return to office has brought a marked shift in U.S. policy toward the conflict, with the president blaming Ukraine for the war Russia started.

Friday’s meeting, which was meant to precede the signing of an economic and minerals agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine, devolved into a confrontation. 

Mr. Trump told Zelenskyy to reach a ceasefire agreement with Russia or “we’re out,” and Vance accused the Ukrainian president of being “disrespectful” after he challenged the vice president’s assertion that the war had dragged on because of a lack of diplomacy from Ukraine and the Biden administration. The meeting abruptly ended without signing the rare earth minerals deal, and several White House officials told CBS News that the future of military aid for Ukraine was in doubt.

Since Mr. Trump took office in January, $3.85 billion has been available in drawdown authority for weaponry that can be pulled from existing U.S. stockpiles and sent to Ukraine, U.S. officials previously told CBS News. But the Trump administration has not packaged any of that aid for a single shipment since Jan. 21, a diplomatic source told CBS News Monday. Still, there have been shipments of weapons sent to Ukraine since Jan. 20 that were promised by the Biden administration in earlier drawdowns, according to defense officials.

The $3.85 billion is spending authority, not congressionally appropriated funds, which means it’s up to the White House to determine whether to release the aid. It is also not considered “real money,” meaning it cannot be spent elsewhere.

Separately, the State Department also has about $1.5 billion in foreign military financing for Ukraine that is under a policy review by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. So far, the Trump State Department has only given Egypt and Israel waivers for FMF assistance.

After Friday’s meeting, Zelenskyy traveled to London for a summit with European and Canadian leaders, where he stressed the importance of Western security guarantees as part of any agreement that would bring the war to an end. He said in Ukrainian that peace with Russia was “still very, very far away,” but he thought that Ukraine-U.S. relations would hold. 

Mr. Trump later posted a link to an Associated Press story covering Zelenskyy’s comments and wrote, “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” 

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?” Mr. Trump added.

Mr. Trump’s hardened stance on Ukraine has rankled some GOP lawmakers.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, said Monday, “I do not think we should be pausing our efforts. It’s the Ukrainians who are shedding blood. It is Putin who launched an unprovoked and unjustified attack on a free, democratic and sovereign country. And I am not backing off my support for Ukraine.”

Before the Trump administration’s announcement Monday, Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said of Ukraine, “I’ll simply say that we’ve got to get back on track again.” 

“It’s critical that we get a minerals agreement put together and that we work on getting a security agreement with Ukraine,” Rounds told reporters at the Capitol. “They have been attacked. Russia is in the wrong, but we want to find a pathway to peace, and that means somebody has got to be the intermediary. I don’t know if the president wants to be that. We need to give him the opportunity, but Russia is the aggressor, and we have to recognize that.”

Mr. Trump said last month that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has also directed Rubio and other members of his national security team to “immediately” begin negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war with Ukraine.

But Rubio said in February there was “a long ways to go” before peace talks could begin. 

Delegations led by Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, shortly after those comments, without Ukrainian officials present. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said after the meeting that Rubio and Lavrov had agreed to appoint “high-level teams to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine as soon as possible in a way that is enduring, sustainable, and acceptable to all sides.”

contributed to this report.