Ukrainians yesterday expressed alarm and apprehension at a US decision to pause military aid that is critical to their fighting Russia’s invasion, as a rift deepens between Kyiv and Washington.
Days after an explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, US President Donald Trump ordered the assistance halted in a bid to pressure Kyiv to engage in peace talks with Russia.
Officials in Kyiv said they were grateful for vital US help in the war and want to keep working with Washington. However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv still wants security guarantees to be part of any peace deal and would not recognize Russian occupation of any Ukrainian land.
Photo: AP
Ukraine and its allies are concerned Trump is pushing for a quick ceasefire that would favor Russia, which Kyiv says cannot be trusted to honor truces.
A White House official said the US was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
The order is to remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.
Ukraine, which depends heavily on foreign help to hold back Russia’s full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022, has feared that aid could be stopped since Trump took office.
US-made Patriot air defense missile systems, for example, are a pivotal part of protecting Ukraine. Just as vital is US intelligence assistance, which has allowed Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.
“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump’s side,” said a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a daring military incursion in August last year to improve its hand in negotiations.
The soldier spoke by phone to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
On the front line, where Ukraine is struggling to fend off the much larger and better-equipped Russian army, another soldier said the US decision would allow further battlefield gains for Moscow.
“War is very pragmatic,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with military regulations.
“If we have weapons, enough ammunition, infantry, armored vehicles and aviation — great. If not, then we’re done,” he said.
He recalled a seven-month delay in US aid that ended in April last year, but opened a door for the Russian capture of the strategically important city of Avdiivka.
The pause in US aid is not expected to have an immediate impact on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces have slowed Russian advances along the roughly 1,000km front line, especially in the fiercely contested Donetsk region about 700km east of Kyiv. The Russian onslaught has been costly in troops and armor, but has not brought a strategically significant breakthrough for the Kremlin.
Olena Fedorova, 46, a resident of the southern port city of Odesa, said she hoped Trump’s decision would be temporary because “we really need help.”
US support is vital because Europe cannot fully provide what Ukraine needs in air defense systems, said lawmaker Yehor Chernov. “As a result, this will lead to an increase in the number of casualties among civilians,” he said.
The US-Ukraine relationship has taken a downturn since Trump took office and his team launched bilateral talks with Russia.
Trump says he wants to get traction for peace negotiations. He vowed during his campaign to settle the war in 24 hours, but later changed that time frame and voiced hope that peace could be negotiated in six months.
Shmyhal said US help is “vital” and has saved “perhaps tens of thousands” of civilian and military lives.
However, he emphasized at a Kyiv news conference that any peace agreement must be “on Ukraine’s terms, as the victim country.”
Ukraine wants “concrete security guarantees” from Washington, European countries and G7 industrialized nations, he said.
Giving up territory to Russia, which occupies nearly 20 percent of Ukraine, “is not possible” under the UN Charter, he said.
He repeated Zelenskiy’s position that Ukraine is still ready to sign a lucrative minerals deal with Trump that could be the first step toward a ceasefire.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Washington’s decision could act as a spur to a peace agreement.
“The US has been the chief supplier in this war so far,” Peskov said. “If the US suspends these supplies, it will make the best contribution to peace.”
Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the US had not consulted with or informed NATO countries before announcing the pause.
Russia will likely try to use the halt in supplies to extend its territorial gains and strengthen its position in prospective peace talks.
Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who chairs the defense committee in the lower house of parliament, as saying Ukraine would exhaust its current ammunition reserves within months.
“We need to keep up the pressure and continue to target their bases and depots with long-range precision weapons to destroy the stockpiles,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s European allies reaffirmed their commitment to Kyiv.
The chief of the EU’s executive proposed an 800 billion euro (US$842 billion) plan to bolster defenses of EU nations and provide Ukraine with military muscle.
The British government, which has been leading European efforts to keep Trump from pushing to end the war on terms that could favor Moscow, said in a statement that it remains “absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine.”
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