President Donald Trump ordered his administration to “take a break” of military aid to Ukraine after the controversial oval office meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, two White House officials in ABC News said.
A White House official said that Trump has been clear that he focuses on peace and added: “We also need our partners to be engaged for this purpose. We stop and examine our help to ensure that it contributes to a solution.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt hall of the White House in Washington, March 3, 2025.
Leah Millis / Reuters
This decision occurred a few hours after Trump told ABC News that Zelenskyy had to be “more grateful”.
The main correspondent in the Rachel Scott policy asked Trump on Tuesday: “What do you have to see President Zelenskyy to restart these negotiations?”
“Well, I just think it should be more grateful because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin,” replied the president.
It is difficult to know exactly how the break could have an impact on the flow of previously granted help.
In recent months of the administration of former president Joe Biden, he announced four packages of the presidential withdrawal authority in Ukraine.
The packages totaled $ 3 billion in weapons from the Pentagon inventory, and they had to be provided to Ukraine as quickly as possible after the announcements in December and January.
About 90% of the weapons engaged in Ukraine by the former PDA plans have already been delivered to the country, according to two US officials familiar with the issue.
This includes the vast majority of critical ammunition and anti-demoral systems, they say, adding that most of the what remains to go through the pipeline is armored vehicles that take more time to renovate, with all the PDA equipment previously on the right track for delivery by August 2025.
However, a regular flow of weapons is still about to switch from the United States to Ukraine for at least the coming years that Kyiv has signed with private American companies for newly produced weapons. Many otherwise most of these contracts have been paid.
The Trump administration could still try to disrupt these shipments thanks to the use of emergency authorities, but there is no indication that he is trying to do so today.
In addition, there is still a chance for negotiations to resume between the United States and Ukraine, as Vice-President JD Vance indicates during an appearance in “Hannity” of Fox News on Monday.
Vance was asked if the administration would welcome Zelenskyy if he was ready to return to the negotiating table. Vance said yes – if Zelenskyy was willing to “seriously commit”.
“I think that if he called and had a serious proposal on the way he was going to engage in the process – look, there are details that really matter, on which we are already working with the Russians,” said Vance.
“He must engage seriously on the details,” he added, although it is not clear if strictly refer to the gross mineral agreement that the United States continues with Ukraine, land concessions or other details that may have an impact on negotiations.
“I think that once it happens, so absolutely, we want to speak,” said the vice-president.
The dispute is also in dispute that the United States has already given Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly said, in an inaccurate manner, that the United States had spent some $ 350 billion for Ukraine, while other sources put the figure well at less than $ 200 billion, including bilateral aid.
Shannon Kingston of ABC News, Luis Martinez and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
