President Donald Trump ordered his administration to “stop” military aid to Ukraine after the contentious oval office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, two White House officials said to ABC News.
A White House official said that Trump has been clear that he is focused on La Paz and added: “We need our partners to also commit to that goal. We are stopping and reviewing our help to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt room of the White House in Washington, on March 3, 2025.
Leah Millis/Reuters
The measure occurred hours after Trump told ABC News that Zelenskyy needed to be “more appreciative.”
The correspondent of the Senior policy, Rachel Scott, asked Trump on Tuesday: “What do you need to see President Zelenskyy to restart these negotiations?”
“Well, I think it should be more appreciated because this country has stayed with them in the bad and thin,” the president replied.
It is difficult to know exactly how the pause could affect the previously granted help flow.
In the last months of the administration of former President Joe Biden, he announced four packages of presidential reduction authority to Ukraine.
The packages totaled $ 3 billion in weapons of the Pentagon inventory, and were destined to be provided to Ukraine as quickly as possible after the ads in December and January.
About 90% of weapons committed to Ukraine for previous PDA packages have already been delivered to the country, according to two US officials familiar with the matter.
That includes the vast majority of critical ammunition and Anti-Amor systems, they say, adding that the majority of what remains to go through the pipe are armored vehicles that take longer to renew, with all PDA teams previously on the way for delivery in August 2025.
However, a constant flow of weapons is still ready to move from the United States to Ukraine for at least the next years of due contracts to Kyiv contracts signed with private companies for newly produced weapons. Many have been paid if not most of those contracts.
The Trump administration could still try to interrupt those shipments through the use of emergency authorities, but there are no indications that you are trying to do it today.
In addition, there is still the possibility that negotiations resume between the United States and Ukraine, such as vice president JD Vance implied during an appearance in Fox News “Hannity” on Monday.
Vance was asked if the administration would welcome Zelenskyy if he was willing to return to the negotiating table. Vance said yes, if Zelenskyy were willing to “commit seriously.”
“I think if he called and had a serious proposal on how he was going to participate in the process; look, there are details that really matter, in which we are already working with the Russians,” said Vance.
“He needs to seriously participate in the details,” he added, although it was not clear if he strictly referred to the agreement of raw minerals that the United States is chasing with Ukraine, land concessions or other details that may be affecting negotiations.
“I think that once that happens, then absolutely, we want to speak,” said the vice president.
The amount of help that the United States has already given Ukraine is also in dispute. Trump has repeatedly stated, incorrectly, that the United States has spent about $ 350 billion in Ukraine, while other sources put the figure below $ 200 billion, including bilateral aid.
Shannon Kingston, Luis Martínez and T. Michelle Murphy of ABC News contributed to this report.
