{"id":3681,"date":"2025-03-04T12:13:53","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3681"},"modified":"2025-03-04T12:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T16:13:54","slug":"trump-pauses-us-military-aid-to-ukraine-while-pressuring-zelenskyy-to-move-toward-quick-end-to-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3681","title":{"rendered":"Trump pauses US military aid to Ukraine while pressuring Zelenskyy to move toward quick end to war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> on Monday directed a \u201cpause\u201d to U.S. assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> to engage in negotiations to end the war with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes just days after a disastrous Oval Office meeting in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they perceived as insufficient gratitude for the more than $180 billion U.S. has appropriated for military aid and other assistance to Kyiv since the start of Russia\u2019s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal and wants Zelenskyy \u201ccommitted\u201d to that goal. The official added that the U.S. was \u201cpausing and reviewing\u201d its aid to \u201censure that it is contributing to a solution.\u201d The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order will remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The halting of military aid comes some five years after Trump held up congressionally authorized assistance to Ukraine as he sought to pressure Zelenskyy to launch an investigation into Joe Biden, then a Democratic presidential candidate. The moment led to Trump\u2019s first impeachment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the leadup to the 2024 election, Trump vowed a quick end to the war in Ukraine, even once boasting that he could bring a halt to the fighting in one day<\/a>. He has shown increasing frustration with Zelenskyy over the war while simultaneously expressing confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he has long admired, can be trusted to keep the peace if a truce is reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump<\/a> earlier on Monday slammed Zelenskyy<\/a> for suggesting that the end of the war<\/a> likely \u201cis still very, very far away.\u201d<\/a> Zelenskyy had suggested it would take time to come to an agreement to end the war as he tried to offer a positive take on the U.S.-Ukraine relationship in the aftermath of last week\u2019s White House meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!\u201d Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, responding to comments Zelenskyy made late Sunday to reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, at a White House event later Monday, referred to Zelenskyy\u2019s reported comments and asserted the Ukrainian leader \u201cbetter not be right about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelenskyy later took to social media<\/a> in an effort to further explain his thinking. He did not directly refer to Trump\u2019s comments, but underscored that it \u201cis very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns,\u201d Zelenskyy added. \u201cWe lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump administration and Ukrainian officials had been expected to sign off on a deal during Zelenskyy\u2019s visit last week that would have given the U.S. access to Ukraine\u2019s critical minerals in part to pay back the U.S. for aid it has sent Kyiv since the start of the war. The White House had billed such a pact as a way to tighten U.S.-Ukrainian relations in the long term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vance, in an interview with Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity that aired Monday evening, said European allies were doing Ukraine a disservice by not pressing Zelenskyy to find an endgame to the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of our European friends puff him up,\u201d Vance said. \u201cThey say, you know, you\u2019re a freedom fighter. You need to keep fighting forever. Well, fighting forever with what? With whose money, with whose ammunition and with whose lives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats said the pausing of aid to Ukraine was dangerous and ill-advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, who is co-chair of the Congressional EU Caucus, said the decision \u201cis reckless, indefensible, and a direct threat to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden administration provided Kyiv with more than $66.5 billion in military aid and weapons since the war began. It had left unspent about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding to send more weapons to Ukraine from existing U.S. stockpiles \u2014 a sum that had not been affected by the foreign aid freeze that Trump put in place when he first took office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis aid was approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis \u2014 Republicans and Democrats alike recognized that standing with Ukraine is standing for democracy and against Putin\u2019s aggression,\u201d Boyle said in a statement. \u201cYet, Trump, who has repeatedly praised Putin and undermined our allies, is now playing political games with critical military assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who served as counsel to House Democrats in the first impeachment inquiry against Trump, said the pausing of aid was \u201canother extortion\u201d of Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the exact opposite of peace through strength,\u201d Goldman said. \u201cInstead, what it is is it\u2019s another extortion of President Zelenskyy, illegally withholding aid in order to get President Zelenskyy to agree to a minerals deal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s national security adviser said Zelenskyy\u2019s posture during Friday\u2019s Oval Office talks \u201cput up in the air\u201d whether he\u2019s someone the U.S. administration will be able to deal with going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs he ready, personally, politically, to move his country towards an end to the fighting?\u201d Mike Waltz said Monday on Fox News\u2019 \u201cAmerica\u2019s Newsroom.\u201d \u201cAnd can he and will he make the compromises necessary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waltz added another layer of doubt about U.S. support as other high-profile Trump allies, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Lindsey Graham, have suggested that the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy is becoming untenable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angela Stent, a former national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council, said Putin is likely in no rush to end the war amid the fissures between Trump and Zelenskyy and between Europe and the U.S. about the way ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe thinks Russia is winning. … And he thinks that as time goes on, the West will be more fractured,\u201d said Stent, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump on Monday suggested he hasn\u2019t given up on the economic pact, calling it \u201ca great deal.\u201d He added that he expected to speak about the deal during his Tuesday address before a joint session of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who co-chairs the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, spoke<\/a> with Zelenskyy\u2019s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, earlier Monday about getting the mineral rights deal back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key GOP senators also indicated before the announcement of paused aid that they see a path to put U.S.-Ukraine relations back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe got to lower the temperature,\u201d said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., \u201cand get to a deal that\u2019s economically beneficial and takes care of our interests as well as the interests of the Ukrainian people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican who is a close ally of Trump, said he believes the president and Zelenskyy can \u201cmove past it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting the minerals deal done is a first step,\u201d Mullin said. After that, he said, Zelenskyy needs to be \u201crealistic on what a peace deal looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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