President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine entered the White Home for a gathering with President Donald Trump on Friday understanding that the movement of weapons and army {hardware} from the US to his nation had basically stopped.
By the point he left, after a televised argument between the 2 leaders, the scenario appeared much more dire.
As the 2 males met, it had been 50 days because the Pentagon had introduced a brand new bundle of weapons to Ukraine and the brand new administration had mentioned little about offering any extra.
A Trump administration official mentioned afterward Friday that each one U.S. support to Ukraine — together with the ultimate shipments of ammunition and tools approved and paid for throughout the Biden administration — may very well be canceled imminently.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of that nation in February 2022, such shipments of army {hardware} from the US have been introduced roughly each two weeks throughout the Biden administration, and generally simply 5 – 6 days aside.
In response to the Pentagon, about $3.85 billion stays of what Congress approved for extra withdrawals from the Protection Division’s stockpile. A former senior protection official from the Biden administration mentioned the final of the arms Ukraine had bought from U.S. protection corporations could be shipped throughout the subsequent six months.
After that, it will likely be as much as a number of European and different international locations to maintain Ukraine’s weapons firing.
Mr. Trump has insisted on “payback” for army support. On Friday, the 2 leaders had been anticipated to signal an agreement that would give the United States access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
A draft of the deal vaguely mentioned security guarantees for Ukraine. However Mr. Zelensky left the White Home with out an settlement, whereas his nation faces relentless assaults from Russian and North Korean troops alongside a 600-mile front line.
Ukraine has relied on a lifeline of arms from the US all through the conflict, beginning the day after Russian troops crossed the border, when the Biden administration announced that it would send Kyiv $350 million value of arms from the Protection Division’s stockpiles.
After Friday’s spectacle within the Oval Workplace, the Trump administration official mentioned the president may determine to finish even the oblique assist being offered by the U.S., which incorporates different sorts of army financing, intelligence sharing, coaching for Ukrainian troops and pilots, and internet hosting a name heart that manages worldwide support at a U.S. military base in Germany.
Such actions could be a stunning abandonment of an embattled companion nation, marking the dying knell of assist that had survived a political problem by Home Republicans greater than a yr in the past.
In late October 2023, Speaker Mike Johnson began signaling that he would maintain up extra funding for Ukraine within the Home after Mr. Trump — then out of workplace — broadcast his hostility towards additional support.
By the point Mr. Johnson lifted his maintain and allowed an aid package to pass on April 20, 2024, Russian troops had advanced as Ukraine’s ammunition provides dwindled.
Since his election, Mr. Trump has vastly overstated the quantity of support the US has given Ukraine, in line with the Kiel Institute, a German analysis group. He has additionally falsely claimed that European contributions to Ukraine have been loans that Kyiv would repay.
European nations have contributed $138 billion to Ukraine’s conflict effort in contrast with $119 billion in army and humanitarian help from the U.S., in line with Kiel Institute information.
As soon as the final of the U.S.-funded purchases of arms finish, the primary supply of army help for Kyiv would be the Ukraine Protection Contact Group, a collection of roughly 50 nations founded in April 2022 by former Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. It met 25 occasions throughout the Biden administration to coordinate the availability of weapons and the event of latest army capabilities for the embattled nation.
On the contact group’s assembly at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in January, Mr. Zelensky mentioned it could be “loopy to drop the ball now” on help, after Ukraine had held off Russian forces for thus lengthy.
Mr. Austin, when requested whether or not he thought the brand new Trump administration would keep on with the coalition, declined to take a position, saying that was a choice “for the following administration to make.”
On Feb. 6, the Pentagon mentioned it was passing management of the group to Britain.
The Pentagon referred questions on persevering with assist to Ukraine to the British ministry of protection.
“A simply and lasting peace is simply attainable if we proceed to indicate power and supply Ukraine with the assist it must defend itself in opposition to continued Russian aggression,” a spokesman for the ministry of protection mentioned in response to questions on how Britain would lead the contact group. “There will probably be no letup in our assist, which we’ll proceed for so long as it’s mandatory.”
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