AGENCY
washington, Mar 4
Days after the public dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Trump administration has paused U.S. military aid to Ukraine. The pause which has already gone into effect will affect hundreds of millions of dollars of weaponry which is not yet inside Ukraine.
The White House confirmed the latest move on Monday in a statement that the US is committed to working towards peace. “The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. 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 White House official said. Ukraine has not officially responded to the latest move. The US has been a key supplier of weapons for Ukraine since the war began but Trump’s latest stance shows a marked shift in U.S. policy toward the conflict. Since Trump took office in January, $3.85 billion has been available to be transported to Ukraine from the existing U.S. stockpiles, CBS News quoted US officials. But, none of that has been packaged since January 21, though shipments of weapons promised by the Biden administration are being transported. Before he left the White House, the Biden administration had rushed shipments of weapons to Ukraine, including the long-range ATACMS missiles, which allowed Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territo In the current scenario, Ukraine can sustain its current fighting pace for several weeks before the pause will begin to show. “The impact is going to be big. I would call it crippling,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN.
Even with European aid, Ukraine can only last only two to four months. “That’s why they don’t fall off a cliff, but when your supplies get cut in half, eventually that shows up on the front lines,” Cancian said. “Their front lines would continue to buckle and eventually they would break and Ukraine would have to accept an adverse – even catastrophic – peace settlement,” he added.
So far, the United States has provided $65.9 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022, the State Department said in January.
