US-Ukraine navy support: Pentagon pauses some munitions shipments, together with air protection missiles, senior White Home official says

CNN
 — 

The Trump administration is pausing some weapons shipments to Ukraine, together with air protection missiles, following a evaluate of navy spending and American assist to international international locations, a senior White Home official advised CNN.

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth signed off on the evaluate, which the official famous had been underway for months. It was not instantly clear if navy assist supplied to different international locations could be affected.

White Home Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly mentioned the choice was made “to place America’s pursuits first.”

The choice to halt some weapons transfers to Ukraine comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with Western allies to bolster its aerial defenses after intensifying Russian airborne attacks.

Russia has in current weeks launched near-nightly air assaults on Ukraine, involving lots of of drones and missiles. On Sunday, the Ukrainian navy mentioned a pilot was killed after his F-16 fighter jet crashed throughout a Russian aerial assault.

Following the assault, Zelensky mentioned on social media Ukraine is able to purchase “American methods” to strengthen its air defenses.

The US has been the biggest single donor of military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, supplying Ukraine with air protection methods, drones, rocket launchers, radars, tanks and anti-armor weapons, resulting in issues over dwindling US stockpiles.

However the stability of support to Ukraine has modified considerably since Trump returned to energy, casting doubt over the way forward for US assist for Kyiv.

In April, Europe surpassed the US in whole navy support to Ukraine for the primary time, with its contribution equaling 72 billion Euros ($84.9 billion), in contrast with the US’s 65 billion Euros ($76.6 billion), in response to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German assume tank that intently tracks wartime support to Ukraine.

The shift got here after Trump halted all shipments of military aid to Ukraine following a heated Oval Workplace argument with Zelensky in March. Trump resumed support flows to Ukraine a few week later.

Final week, throughout the NATO summit in The Hague, US President Donald Trump suggested Kyiv may even see future Patriot missile system deliveries from the US – signaling a attainable shift in his enthusiastic about US support flows to Kyiv.

The Patriots are broadly thought-about among the many finest air protection methods, notably in defending in opposition to superior hypersonic and ballistic missiles.

Ukraine is thought to have roughly half a dozen of the US-made Patriot air defense systems, which play an important function in its air protection, defending tens of millions of civilians from Russian missiles.

However Kyiv is vulnerable to working out of missiles for these methods.