Trump blocks Ukraine weapons deliveries to ‘put America’s interests first’

 The US has halted weapons shipments to Ukraine because of concerns that America’s stockpile is too low.

In a blow to Kyiv, the White House said it will “put America’s interests first following a review of the nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe” on Tuesday evening.

“The strength of the United States armed forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran,” the spokesman added.

The Pentagon review found that stocks were too low on some items previously promised, including air defence missiles to help down Russian drones, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles.

America has sent more than $66 billion (£43.7 billion) in military aid to Ukraine since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, but the move to reduce defence assistance has suggested a shift in Donald Trump’s priorities.

A bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen cost the US president nearly $1 billion (£780 million), while the mission to strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities saw 14 bunker-busting GBU-57 bombs dropped from B2 bombers at a price of tens of millions of pounds.

The Trump administration’s decision came as Ukraine faced a record number of missile and drone attacks from Russia as their forces continued to advance.

Since the start of June, Russia has fired an average of 256 projectiles every 24 hours, according to figures compiled by the Ukrainian air force.

Responding to Washington’s announcement, Ukraine said it would struggle to defend itself against Russia’s advancing forces as it is “seriously dependent” on US defence weapons.

A high-ranking military source told AFP on Wednesday: “We are now seriously dependent on American arms supplies, although Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition.”

The Kremlin, meanwhile, welcomed the move, saying reducing the flow of some weapons shipments to Kyiv will produce a faster end to its more than three-year assault on Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said: “The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation.”

Speaking last week, Vladimir Putin said “all of Ukraine is ours”, signalling that Moscow’s war objective remains taking the whole of the country as the world’s attention is drawn to the conflict in the Middle East and Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Wherever the Russian soldier treads is ours,” the Russian president told an economic forum in St Petersburg, while his forces attempted to push into the Sumy region, which was not one of the four regions he annexed in 2022.

Elbridge Colby, the US undersecretary of defence for policy, said the US department of defence “continues to provide the president with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine”.

“At the same time,” Mr Colby added, “the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for administration defence priorities.”

In opening remarks at a Senate defence appropriations sub-committee hearing in June, Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said he had moved quickly to cut wasteful programs and redirect funds to Trump’s primary objectives.

Mr Hegseth said some US security spending for Ukraine remains in the pipeline but acknowledged that funding for Kyiv’s military assistance would be reduced.

“This administration takes a very different view of that conflict,” he said. “We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests.”

The decision to put military aid on hold was intended to ensure the US did not “shortchange” itself, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said at a Defence Department briefing.

“This capability review ... is being conducted to ensure US military aid aligns with our defence priorities,” he said. “We see this as a common-sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what munitions are sent and where.” 

It was intended to help Mr Trump and Mr Hegseth be better informed when they made decisions.

“Ultimately, our job here at the Department of Defence is to pursue the president’s ‘America First’ agenda and make sure that we achieve peace through strength throughout the world.”

He insisted that the US military still had the resources to defend the country.

“We want to be very clear about this last point,” he said. “Let it be known that our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world. We have the most lethal fighting force in the world.” 

The decision came shortly after Mr Trump met with Volodymyr Zelensky at the sidelines of a Nato summit in the Hague last week.

He said the US is trying to find American-made Patriot air defence missile systems to send to Ukraine, acknowledging that they “do want that more than any other thing”.

“They do want to have the anti-missile missiles,” Mr Trump said, speaking about Ukraine. “As they call them the patriots and we’re going to see if we can make some available.”

He said the US continues supplying weapons to Israel and that “you know, they’re very hard to get. We need them, too”.

Referring to his meeting with Mr Zelensky, Mr Trump said: “We had a little rough sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

After the two leaders descended into a heated shouting match in the Oval Office in March, Mr Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine as well as vital intelligence sharing.

This would have made attacking targets within Russia and giving civilians sufficient warning to get to bomb shelters much harder. Both pauses were subsequently lifted.

Credit: Reuters

Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin spoke on Tuesday by telephone for the first time in over two-and-a-half years.

Mr Macron’s attempts at phone diplomacy early on in the Ukraine conflict were widely criticised and had no apparent impact on the Russian president’s bellicose actions.

But in a conversation that lasted more than two hours, the French president urged a ceasefire in Ukraine and talks for a “lasting settlement” while his Russian counterpart hit back by blaming the West, which “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests” and “created an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine”.

A week after a ceasefire ended Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, the two leaders also discussed Tehran’s nuclear programme, with Mr Macron suggesting Moscow and Paris work together to de-escalate tensions.

Unlike America, “Paris and Moscow are prepared to tolerate the regime enriching uranium for civilian purposes, but only under strict controls. The call helped to clarify positions,” wrote Le Monde, the French newspaper.

The paper cited a French diplomat as justifying the call by saying: “We are in a diplomatic bubble in Europe. We are the only continent that thinks we cannot talk to those with whom we disagree.”