The Pentagon on Wednesday came under criticism from US lawmakers for its decision to halt sending air defense missiles to Ukraine, after the war-battered country appealed for clarity.
Ukraine is contending with some of Russia’s largest missile and drone attacks of the three-year war, and a halt to the provision of munitions — especially for air defense — would be a significant blow to Kyiv.
US lawmakers challenged the Pentagon’s argument that the pause is necessary while the US reviews its stockpiles and weighs the need to save weapons for other threats.
Photo: Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region via Reuters
While stockpile numbers are classified, the weapons Ukraine needs most are not urgently required elsewhere and there was no immediate need to deny the country weapons that were already on their way, they said.
“I understand there are threats in the Indo-Pacific area and in the Middle East and we should be replenishing stockpiles, but the solution is to produce more, not withhold it from Ukraine,” US Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in an interview.
US Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and outspoken defender of Ukraine, demanded an emergency briefing from US President Donald Trump’s administration on its decision to withhold what he called “urgent, life-saving military assistance.”
The decision to suspend some deliveries of air defense missiles and artillery shells caught Ukraine and its allies off guard, especially as it came just days after Trump suggested he would be willing to send more Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
Critics characterized it as a political decision from a White House that has called for an end to the war, but also refused to impose fresh sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin or approve new funding for Ukraine.
Moscow reveled in the decision, saying that it could bring the end of the war closer.
“Putin will view this Pentagon decision as a green light to ignore Trump’s warnings to stop,” said retired US rear admiral Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Kyiv has long feared halts to US aid after Trump returned to the White House in January, having criticized the tens of billions of dollars in support and weapons sent by former US president Joe Biden.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening address that Kyiv and Washington were clarifying details on supplies.
“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defense, for our people is in our common interest,” he said.
One NATO ally is pressing the US Department of Defense to reconsider the move, according to a European official familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
Many US officials were still seeking answers about a move that caused confusion within the administration as well. Two people familiar with the matter said that even the US Department of State had not been consulted about the decision.
In a guest essay for the New York Times, former Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the main target of the pause, a program known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, uses federal funds to buy weapons directly from manufacturers for delivery to Ukraine.
“The administration may not want to say it, but the reality appears to be that the president is winding down US security assistance to Ukraine,” he wrote.
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