The Trump administration temporarily has suspended a part of its military aid to Ukraine, after an extensive review of the United States' own defense inventory, the White House and Pentagon announced on Tuesday.
"This decision was made to make America first after reviewing our country's military assistance and support to other nations around the world," White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a formal statement.
This, as per various US media reports, is the result of growing fears over diminishing American military reserves, especially after three years of costly aid to Ukraine and recent operations against Yemen's Houthi rebels and Iranian assets.
Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a call for a formal analysis of the inventory of U.S. munitions. That analysis reportedly showed that inventories for some weapons systems—many of which were already committed to Ukraine—were perilously low.
Even as the pause in aid was declared, Elbridge Colby, Undersecretary of Policy at the Defense Department, stated that the U.S. is still committed to aiding Ukraine's defense.
"The Pentagon will continue to offer the president strong options to maintain military assistance to Ukraine, in line with his objective of ending this terrible war," Colby added in a statement.
He further added,
"While doing so, the department is closely studying and refining its approach to obtaining this goal while also maintaining U.S. forces' readiness for Administration defense priorities."
The statement comes after President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at last week's NATO summit in The Hague. Trump commented on Ukraine's request for Patriot air defense systems made in the United States when he spoke with reporters later.
"They do want to have the anti-missile missiles, OK, as they call them, the Patriots," Trump said. "And we're going to see if we can make some available. We need them, too."
He further added:
We're providing them to Israel, and they're very effective, 100 percent effective. Hard to believe how effective. They do want that more than any other thing.
Certain defense experts view the administration's recent actions as possible indications of a wider rollback of U.S. support for Ukraine. Significantly, Defense Secretary Hegseth did not attend a recent international planning meeting for military aid to Ukraine—the first time a U.S. defense secretary has ever skipped such a session.
Since the inception of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022, the United States has shipped more than $66 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine, per an Associated Press report.
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