Trump suspends aid to Ukraine over Zelenskyy’s statement on duration of war - WSJ
US President Donald Trump has decided to freeze aid to Ukraine after Volodymyr Zelenskyy's statement about the possible duration of the war.
This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, Censor.NET informs.
According to the publication, Donald Trump's decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine was supported by all his national security advisers.
A senior official said that Trump decided to take this step after Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said that the war could last for a long time. The US president was irritated by this statement, feeling the need to demonstrate the seriousness of his intentions and show that he was ready to bring Ukraine to the negotiating table.
"Ukrainians did not take our intentions seriously. We had to demonstrate this," the anonymous source said.
Also, according to the official, Trump will still determine which steps by Ukraine will be sufficient to resume military assistance, in particular, whether the US-Ukraine subsoil deal will be a sufficient precondition for the return of arms supplies.
Suspension of US aid
On the morning of 4 March, it became known that US President Donald Trump had ordered to pause of all US military aid to Ukraine in order to force Kyiv to demonstrate a ‘good faith commitment’ to peace.
One of the US officials told CNN that the consequences of the suspension of US military aid will be felt in some time. Perhaps a few days or weeks. However, as soon as the stocks of weapons and armaments start to run out, the country will face serious consequences.
According to journalist Ostap Yarysh, the US decision to suspend assistance to Ukraine will primarily affect the supply of missiles to air defence systems and ammunition to HIMARS and artillery.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that the US decision to temporarily suspend military aid to Ukraine means that Europe must help Ukraine more and faster than before to fill the gap.
The Economist article says that the US decision to suspend aid to Ukraine will lead to more casualties and destruction. The critical elements, the newspaper writes, are weapons, their repair, air defence missiles, the Starlink system and, perhaps most importantly, intelligence sharing.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda's chief national security adviser, Marius Česnulevičius, said that Washington's decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine was not a surprise. However, Europe is preparing a response.
Later, The Economist wrote that there is currently no official order from Donald Trump to suspend military aid to Ukraine.
