US announces sudden partial halt to weapons shipments to Ukraine

UKRAINE HAS APPEALED to the United States for clarity after it was caught off guard by a White House announcement that the US is halting some of its arms shipments to Ukraine.

The US said that it was halting some key weapons shipments promised by the previous White House administration without elaborating further on what that would entail.  

The Ukrainian defence ministry, which depends significantly on US arms, said it had not been notified about the reduction in aid in advance.

Any slowdown in US support could harm Ukraine’s ability to fend off escalating Russian aerial bombardments or frontline gains. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this evening that Ukraine and the US are clarifying details on supplies.

“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defence, for our people, is in our common interest,” he said.

John Ginkel, the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Kyiv, was summoned by the foreign ministry given uncertainty about what the cuts would mean for Ukraine.

“Now is not the time for weak decisions,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X. “We need more interceptors and systems. We are also ready to purchase or rent them,” he said.

Under Biden, the US spearheaded western support for Ukraine, with the US Congress having approved more than $100 billion in aid, including $43 billion in weaponry.

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Trump instead has pushed the two sides into peace talks, including in phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin — who rejected pleas for a ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine cede more territory if it wants Moscow to halt its invasion, which was launched in 2022.

The US president has refused to announce new aid packages and Ukraine has been corralling European allies to step up their support.

Ukraine remains “seriously dependent” on US arms supplies, a high-ranking source in the Ukrainian military told AFP.

“Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition,” the source said.

A May report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said that Europe “had only made limited progress” in strengthening its defence industries and that “continued US aid remains extremely important for Ukraine’s long-term effectiveness on the battlefield”.

In Moscow, the Kremlin said that reducing weapons deliveries to Kyiv would help end the conflict.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in response to a question by AFP, using Russia’s term for its more than three-year-long offensive.

The White House told AFP in an email that the decision to reduce shipments was taken following a “review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries”.

Ukraine said that it was caught off-guard by the move. The defence ministry said that the country had “not received any official notifications” on the issue. 

© AFP 2025