Multiple US news organizations are reporting that the Trump administration is considering halting military aid to Ukraine following a contentious White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 28 February.
This follows the 45-minute press briefing which turned at the end into a shouting match between the leaders and resulted in the cancellation of a planned US-Ukraine mineral agreement signing. Trump later ordered Ukrainian officials to leave the White House.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a senior administration official said Trump has ordered his top national security staff to “review whether the US could temporarily or fully pause ongoing weapons deliveries to Ukraine.”
The Washington Post reported similar information from a senior administration official, who told the newspaper that “the Trump administration is considering ending all ongoing shipments of military aid to Ukraine in response to Zelensky’s perceived intransigence in the face of Trump’s desire to quickly solve the Ukraine conflict.”
“What they experienced was diplomacy in action with blunt talk and a clarity that you rarely, rarely see,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told Fox Business, describing the heated Oval Office exchange.
The New York Times also reported that the administration might end “indirect support being provided by the US, which includes other types of military financing, intelligence sharing, training for Ukrainian troops and pilots.”
The Times called such actions “a shocking abandonment of an embattled partner nation, marking the death knell of support that had survived a political challenge by House Republicans more than a year ago.”
CNN reported that despite no new aid announcements from the Trump administration, “the delivery of weapons and equipment previously announced under the Biden administration has still been flowing to Kyiv in recent weeks.”
“There was no indication that had changed in the immediate aftermath of the Oval Office blowup,” CNN reported, citing multiple US officials.
The unusually public confrontation between Trump and Zelenskyy ended with Trump ordering the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House. A planned joint press conference and mineral rights deal signing were both canceled.
“He can come back when he is ready for peace,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the meeting.
The meeting deteriorated US Vice President JD Vance claimed that the war should be resolved through diplomacy. Zelenskyy responded that he had previously signed an agreement with Putin in the presence of the French president and German chancellor, but Putin disrupted the deal more than 20 times and laucnhed a full-scale invasion in 2022. Zelesnkyy then asked “what kind of diplomacy the Vice President means”? JD Vance then accused Zelenskyy of being ungrateful.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once in the entire meeting?” Vance asked, according to reports. “Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America – and the president who’s trying to save your country.”
“Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you US President, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that,” Zelenskyy later posted on X.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, advised against the Oval Office meeting because he thought “the relationship needed to be strengthened,” according to a source familiar with the talks cited by CNN.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) told reporters at the White House that he had lunch with Trump after the Oval Office meeting and that the president was shocked by the exchange. Graham said he had told Zelenskyy before the meeting not to “take the bait” if challenged.
Read also:
- Zelenskyy: Ukraine ready for peace but “in a good position”
- Starmer speaks with Zelenskyy and Macron following difficult Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
- Historian Timothy Snyder: Trump and Vance act as if it’s Ukraine’s fault for standing up to Russia
