US put weapons deliveries to Ukraine on pause? What is known so far

Key questions

• Who in the US decided to pause weapons deliveries to Ukraine?

• Not just Patriot missiles. What other weapons are affected by the "pause"?

• What does the White House say about the suspension of aid?

• How might this decision impact the situation on the front lines?

• How is the Ukrainian government reacting?

• When might the consequences of this "pause" be felt?

Who in the US made the decision?

The first to report on the US Department of Defense’s decision to pause deliveries of certain types of air defense missiles and precision-guided munitions to Ukraine was Politico, citing three informed sources.

The report states that the decision was made by the head of the Pentagon’s policy office, Elbridge Colby, after reviewing available stockpiles. The reason for the pause, it is said, was concerns about the US’s own weapon reserves.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed off on the review, which, according to a senior White House official cited by CNN, had been ongoing for several months.

According to Politico, the aid that had been allocated during former US President Joe Biden’s administration was decided to be paused in early June, but the decision is only now coming into effect.

Journalists report that although the Trump administration did not announce new aid packages, sufficient funds from Biden’s administration remained to support Ukraine for several more months.

A person familiar with the halt in ammunition supplies told Politico that since February, the Pentagon has been categorizing munitions by criticality due to concerns that too many air defense missiles were being sent to support operations in Yemen.

According to the source, the Pentagon had long prepared a memo for Hegseth to freeze deliveries of the most scarce munitions to Ukraine. However, no further actions were taken due to personnel changes in the department.

Specifically, there were plans to redirect key munitions — including artillery shells, tank rounds, and air defense systems — back to the US or Israel.

"Since March, they have repeatedly proposed suspending shipments," the source noted.

Politico points out that if the Trump administration allows freezing or slowing down the delivery of weapons already funded by the US Congress without an appropriate budget declaration and solely based on Colby’s analysis, this could violate the law.

This already happened in 2019, when during Trump’s first presidential term, $214 million in security assistance to Ukraine already approved by Congress, was frozen. At that time, the US Government Accountability Office recognized that this violated the Impoundment Control Act, because policy disagreements cannot be a lawful reason to block allocated funds.

The Pentagon decided to approve a pause in weapons deliveries to Ukraine after Defense Secretary Hegseth ordered an assessment of the state of American arsenals (Getty Images)

Media: White House confirmed

Several American media outlets reported that the White House has already confirmed the suspension of some weapons supplies to Ukraine. They quote White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, who stated that the decision was made "to put US interests first."

"The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains undisputed - just ask Iran," American outlets quote Kelly as saying.

At the same time, according to Colby, the Pentagon "continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine."

"At the same time, the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities," Axios quotes him as saying.

What weapons are 'on pause'?

As NBC News journalists found out, the weapons whose supply has been suspended include:

• dozens of PAC-3 missiles for Patriot air defense systems, capable of intercepting ballistic missiles;

• thousands of 155mm artillery shells;

• more than 250 precision-guided GMLRS rockets used for HIMARS multiple rocket launchers;

• over 100 Hellfire missiles, which are used for ground launches to strike ground targets up to 8 km away;

• dozens of Stinger surface-to-air missiles; AIM-7 air-to-air missiles (intended for F-16 fighters); grenade launchers.

The Financial Times, which shares a comment from a Ukrainian military representative regarding the suspension of some US weapon supplies, notes that some of the weapons were already en route to Ukraine when the pause occurred.

About the mechanism of US aid delivery and how long the pause might last

Overall, the United States has been supplying Ukraine through two aid programs launched by the Biden administration.

The first program involves the US providing Ukraine with some of its own weapons directly from US stockpiles. These stocks are then gradually replenished with funds from the federal budget. Since President Trump took office, the program has continued to use the remaining funds from the $61 billion package approved during Biden’s administration to restock US weapon stockpiles and provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and other partners.

The second program is called the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Under this program, the US does not give its own weapons but allocates funds to purchase new weapons for Ukraine from private US companies. These funds have already been used to sign contracts for the production and delivery of weapons to Ukraine.

The New York Times notes that it remains unclear how quickly the effects of the pause in deliveries will be felt on the battlefield, although some US officials said on Tuesday that ammunition was not planned to be supplied to Ukraine for several months.

What threats does this pose to Ukraine?

American media highlight that the Pentagon’s decision to pause some of the previously promised ammunition has worried Ukraine supporters in the US Congress — they fear it will make Ukraine vulnerable to new Russian airstrikes, especially as Moscow has recently intensified its aerial attacks.

"US-made air defense systems, including the Patriot platform, are the centerpiece of Ukraine’s defenses … They work. They save lives every day. If Politico’s report proves accurate, then Mr. Colby is making decisions that will inevitably lead to the deaths of many Ukrainian soldiers and civilians," said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat and co-chair of the US Congressional Ukraine Caucus.

Senator and leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jeanne Shaheen warned that "the Pentagon is significantly weakening Ukraine’s defense against aerial attacks even as Russia pounds Ukrainian cities night after night, with numerous civilians dead and wounded."

The German tabloid BILD, citing expert opinion, writes that reportedly "Ukraine’s stock of US missiles will last only until the end of summer," and after that, "the situation will be critical," unless Europe tries "to somehow fill this gap."

Photo: The pause in missile deliveries for air defense is happening just when Ukraine especially needs protection from intense Russian airstrikes (Getty Images)

How Ukraine is responding

Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, told RBC-Ukraine that the Ukrainian side has not received official confirmation from the US about the suspension of missile or other ammunition deliveries for air defense.

However, he noted that Ukraine, understanding the risks of current international-political realities, has worked on various options to minimize negative consequences and therefore has "a certain reserve of capabilities."

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine also confirmed that it has not received any official notifications about stopping or revising the schedules of agreed defense aid deliveries from the US.

"The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has requested a phone conversation with colleagues from the US to clarify details further. Results of contacts with our American partners will be additionally reported at the level of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine," the Ukrainian ministry’s press service said.

Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of the President’s Office, stated today on the Ukrainian TV channel Freedom that US weapon supplies are reportedly continuing.

"Supplies are ongoing as of today. It would look very strange, it would look inhumane to stop supplying antimissile weapons — let’s put it this way — especially for Patriot systems, which clearly and massively protect the civilian population in Ukraine," Podolyak said.

Notably, amid reports about the suspension of deliveries, today the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned John Hinkle, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine.

The key topic of the conversation with the American diplomat was precisely US military aid and defense cooperation between the two countries amid Russia’s escalation of aggression and terror against Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian side emphasized that any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue the war and terror, rather than seek peace," the MFA press service reported.

A brief statement was later made by Andriy Yermak, head of the President’s Office.

"We are working; try to reflect less on loud headlines about defense — only official information matters," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

Did the US pause missile deliveries for air defense just as Ukraine needs protection from Russian attacks?

Reports about this pause emerged less than a week after President Trump discussed air defense issues with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in The Hague (Netherlands).

Following his conversation with Zelenskyy, Trump held a press conference where, responding to a question from a Ukrainian BBC correspondent about Patriot air defense systems and whether the US was ready to sell them to Ukraine amid intensified Russian bombings of Ukrainian cities, he promised to "look into" whether the US could provide some of them.

"They (the Ukrainians – ed.) do want to have the anti-missiles, as they call them… the Patriots. And we’re going to see if we can make some available. They’re very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective. A hundred percent effective – hard to believe how effective," Trump said.

During his interaction with reporters, the US president called his nearly hour-long meeting with Zelenskyy "very nice" while noting that they "had tough times" in the past.

Presumably, Trump was referring to their dispute at the White House that took place in March this year in the Oval Office before television cameras. At that time, the US also suspended aid, but completely. Washington also paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Back then, the Trump administration explained that the move was meant to "pressure" the Ukrainian authorities to agree to a deal that was supposed to stop the war. However, both pauses were later lifted. Still, analysts believe that the pause seriously affected the course of the Kursk operation, when Ukrainian forces were pushed back by the Russian army with the involvement of North Korean soldiers.

Sources: materials from Politico, CNN, New York Times, NBC News, BILD, Financial Times; statements from the Office of the President, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; as well as an exclusive comment from Fedir Venislavskyi, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence.