By Nancy A. Youssef and Jared Malsin
The Trump administration has stopped financing new weapons sales to Ukraine and is considering freezing weapons shipments from U.S. stockpiles, moves that threaten Kyiv’s ability to fight at a critical time in its battle against Russian forces, current and former U.S. officials said.
The financing was halted in recent weeks amid the administration’s freeze on foreign aid. But the move to potentially shut down the main pipeline for arms transfers to Ukraine comes days after a contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The tense exchange Friday raised fears across Europe that the U.S. could be moving away from the wider Western alliance.
Asked Monday if he was planning to suspend military aid to Ukraine, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens. A lot of things are happening.”
He added that Zelensky should be “more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin.” A proposed mineral-rights deal between the U.S. and Ukraine would provide Kyiv with added security—even without explicit U.S. defense guarantees sought by Zelensky—because the U.S. would have a “presence there,” Trump said.
Earlier Monday, Trump lashed out publicly at Zelensky for saying the war with Russia was likely to continue for some time. “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on his social-media platform Truth Social, using a different spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name.
The Trump administration in late January ordered a stop to all foreign aid, including military aid, except to Israel and Egypt, without a waiver. On Friday, the administration said it was sending Israel nearly $3 billion in new weapons, including more than 35,000 new 2,000 pound bombs, invoking an emergency rule under U.S. arms control laws.
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