President Donald Trump directed his administration to “pause” army support to Ukraine after the contentious Oval Workplace assembly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28, two White Home officers instructed ABC Information.
A White Home official stated Trump has been clear that he’s targeted on peace and added, “We want our companions to be dedicated to that objective as properly. We’re pausing and reviewing our support to make sure that it’s contributing to an answer.”
President Donald Trump speaks within the Roosevelt Room of the White Home in Washington, Mar. 3, 2025.
Leah Millis/Reuters
The transfer got here hours after Trump instructed ABC Information that Zelenskyy wanted to be “extra appreciative.”
Senior Politics Correspondent Rachel Scott requested Trump on Tuesday: “What do it’s essential see from President Zelenskyy to restart these negotiations?”
“Properly, I simply assume he ought to be extra appreciative as a result of this nation has caught with them via thick and skinny,” the president responded.
It is troublesome to know precisely how the pause may impression the move of beforehand granted support.
In the previous few months of former President Joe Biden’s administration, it introduced 4 Presidential Drawdown Authority packages to Ukraine.
The packages totaled $3 billion in weapons from the Pentagon’s stock, and so they had been meant to be supplied to Ukraine as shortly as attainable following the bulletins in December and January.
About 90% of arms dedicated to Ukraine by previous PDA packages have already been delivered to the nation, based on two U.S. officers accustomed to the matter.
That features the overwhelming majority of essential munitions and anti-armor programs, they are saying, including that a lot of the what’s left to undergo the pipeline are armored automobiles that take longer to refurbish, with all PDA tools beforehand on monitor for supply by August 2025.
Nonetheless, a gentle move of arms remains to be set to maneuver from the U.S. to Ukraine for at the very least the subsequent a number of years due contracts Kyiv signed with personal American corporations for newly produced weapons. Many if not most of these contracts have been paid.
The Trump administration may nonetheless try to disrupt these shipments via the usage of emergency authorities, however there’s no indication it’s making an attempt to do this at current.
Moreover, there’s nonetheless an opportunity for negotiations to renew between the U.S. and Ukraine, as Vice President JD Vance implied throughout an look on Fox Information’ “Hannity” on Monday.
Vance was requested if the administration would welcome Zelenskyy again if he had been keen to return again to the negotiating desk. Vance stated sure — if Zelenskyy had been keen to “have interaction critically.”
“I believe that if he referred to as and had a severe proposal for a way he was going to interact within the course of — look, there are particulars that basically matter, that we’re already engaged on with the Russians,” Vance stated.
“He wants to interact critically on the small print,” he added, although it was unclear if he was strictly referring to the uncooked minerals deal that the U.S. is pursuing with Ukraine, land concessions or different particulars which may be impacting negotiations.
“I believe as soon as that occurs, then completely, we wish to discuss,” the vice chairman stated.
Additionally in dispute is the quantity of support that the U.S. has already given Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly claimed, inaccurately, that the US has spent some $350 billion towards Ukraine, whereas different sources put the determine properly below $200 billion, together with bilateral support.
ABC Information’ Shannon Kingston, Luis Martinez and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
