The Trump administration is pausing aid to Ukraine after a tense clash between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week.
The pause comes after a Friday confrontation at the White House when a proposed mineral deal between Ukraine and the United States fell through as Zelensky argued with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in front of the media. While Trump has said that he is looking to bring the war to a swift close through a peace settlement, Zelensky has predicted that the end is “still very, very far away.”
“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 said Monday evening.
The White House noted that the aid may resume at some point, but only if Ukraine is committed to working toward peace.
“This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” one White House official told Fox News. “The orders are going out right now.”
Under previous President Joe Biden, the United States sent Ukraine tens of billions of dollars worth of military supplies and committed to indefinitely supporting Ukraine. In contrast, Trump campaigned on bringing peace between Ukraine and Russia and has said that Zelensky doesn’t seem to want the war to end.
Zelensky on Monday claimed that a peace deal with Russia was “very, very far away” but that he expected the United States to continue to support his efforts.
Trump responded by saying that it was the “worst statement” that Zelensky could have made.
“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?” he posted on Truth Social.
That came after the heated Oval Office meeting on Friday when Zelensky argued that giving Russian President Vladimir Putin room to negotiate was effectively giving the Russian leader a win. During the meeting, Trump said that Zelensky was “gambling with World War III” by not doing more to seek peace with Russia after the Ukrainian president suggested the United States “will feel” the consequences of Putin’s aggression “in the future.”
