A Pentagon decision to halt some arms shipments to Ukraine including air-defense missiles is “painful” for Kyiv’s effort to defend against Russian airstrikes, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker said yesterday.
“This decision is certainly very unpleasant for us,” Fedir Venislavskyi, a lawmaker from the ruling Servant of the People party and a member of parliament’s defense committee, told reporters in Kyiv.
“It’s painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine ... it’s a very unpleasant situation,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
The White House on Tuesday said it is halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under former US president Joe Biden’s administration.
Stopping the delivery of munitions and other military aid including air defense systems would likely be a blow to Ukraine as it contends with some of Russia’s largest missile and drone attacks of the three-year-old war.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD [US Department of Defense] review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in an e-mail.
The decision signals a possible shift in the priorities of US President Donald Trump, who has pressed for Kyiv and Moscow to speed up stalled peace talks. He has moved on to playing a greater role in orchestrating a possible ceasefire in Gaza and toning down Iran-Israel tensions after a deadly 12-day conflict between them.
The Pentagon review determined that stocks had become too low on some previously pledged munitions, and that some pending shipments would not be sent, Politico quoted a US official as saying on condition of anonymity.
Politico, which first reported the halt of military aid, and other US media said that missiles for Patriot air defense systems, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles are among the items being held back.
“The Trump administration is even stopping delivery of Patriots? So disgusting and embarrassing as the ‘leader of the free world.’ I guess we are done with that,” Michael McFaul, who was the US ambassador to Russia from 2012 until just before the Crimea conflict began in 2014, wrote on X.
Last week at a NATO summit in the Netherlands, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with Trump and appeared to receive a vague response from the US leader on Patriot air defense systems.
“We’re going to see if we can make some available,” Trump said of the missiles that Kyiv desperately seeks to shoot down Russian attacks.
“They’re very hard to get,” Trump added.
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