Military aid to Ukraine unilaterally stopped by Hegseth, despite analysis results – media
The suspension of U.S. military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral move by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, despite a military analysis that found the aid did not threaten U.S. combat readiness, NBC News reported, citing three unnamed congressional aides and a former U.S. official familiar with the matter.
A senior Pentagon official, Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, has backed the moves, the sources said. Colby has long advocated scaling back the U.S. commitment in Ukraine and shifting weapons and resources to the Pacific region to counter China.
The ezine say that Hegseth has twice before suspended aid to Ukraine without apparent coordination with lawmakers on Capitol Hill or even within the administration. The first time, in February, drew a prickly response from the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who called the move “a rookie mistake.” The next time was in early May, according to a Senate aide. In both cases, the suspensions of aid were reversed within days.
Critics of the decision to suspend supplies included both Republicans and Democrats, according to congressional aides. Lawmakers from both parties were frustrated that they had not been notified in advance and were investigating whether the delayed shipment violated laws that mandate security assistance to Ukraine.
It is noted that critics of the decision included Republicans and Democrats who support aiding Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Lawmakers from both parties were frustrated by the lack of advance notice and were looking into whether the delayed shipment violated laws that mandate security assistance to Ukraine, congressional aides said.
A leading House Democrat, Adam Smith of Washington, said it was disingenuous of the Pentagon to use military readiness to justify halting aid when the real reason appears to be simply to pursue an agenda of cutting off American aid to Ukraine. “We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise [of weapons and ammunition], than we’ve been in the 3½ years of the Ukraine conflict,” Smith said in an interview with NBC News.
It is reported that in Poland and other European countries, some of the U.S. weapons had already been loaded onto trucks, ready to be delivered to Kyiv to help its government fend off Russian missile attacks and hold the line against ground forces in the country’s east. Then, military officers and officials handling the shipment got word that the delivery had been called off, said two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The White House has defended the decision, saying it followed an ongoing review by the Defense Department of U.S. assistance to allies and partners abroad that began last month. The review began after Hegseth issued a memo ordering the Pentagon’s Joint Staff to review stockpiles of all munitions. According to three officials familiar with the matter, the assessment found that some stockpiles of high-precision munitions were at lower levels but not yet beyond critical minimums. But the Joint Staff concluded that providing continued assistance to Ukraine would not drain U.S. supplies below a required threshold needed to ensure military readiness, the officials said.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
