President Trump has stopped all military aid to Ukraine.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that United States President, Donald Trump, has ordered a pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine after his heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, last week, a White House official told CNN.
This came as Zelensky, yesterday, said he wanted to make things right with Trump and to work under the US president’s strong leadership to secure a lasting peace in Ukraine.
In his first public comments, since Trump halted US military aid to Ukraine, Zelensky called for a truce in the sea and sky as a first step to ending the three-year war and pledged to sign a key minerals deal with Washington.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is time to make things right,” he said.
The halt in aid came after Trump held a series of meetings with top national security officials at the White House, and will remain in place until Trump determines Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks, one official said, essentially forcing Ukraine to a negotiating table by threatening further losses on the battlefield.
“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” the White House official said.
Trump’s stunning decision Monday to halt aid to Ukraine deepened fears in Kyiv and many European capitals that America was pivoting away from its allies and towards Moscow.
Moscow hailed Trump’s decision, with Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, calling it a solution which could really push the Kyiv regime to a peace process.
“If the United States stops military supplies, this would probably be the best contribution to peace,” Peskov said.
The European Union, which, along with Ukraine, is excluded from US-Russian negotiations towards a potential truce in Ukraine, has been scrambling to bolster support for Kyiv.
The urgency heightened last week, when Trump and Zelensky clashed in the White House, with Trump warning his Ukrainian counterpart won’t be around very long without a ceasefire deal with Moscow.
European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, yesterday, presented an EU plan to mobilise some 800 billion euros ($840 billion) for Europe’s defence.
The funding, she said, would massively step up support to Ukraine and provide it immediate military equipment.
