U.S. Hitting Brakes on Flow of Arms to Ukraine
Military financing has been stopped, and officials are meeting to consider suspending another type of assistance
March 3, 2025
The Trump administration has stopped financing new weapons sales to Ukraine and is considering freezing weapons shipments from U.S. stockpiles, moves that threaten Kyiv’s ability to fight at a critical time in its battle against Russian forces, current and former U.S. officials said.
The financing was halted in recent weeks amid the administration’s freeze on foreign aid. But the move to potentially shut down the main pipeline for arms transfers to Ukraine comes days after a contentious meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. The tense exchange Friday raised fears across Europe that the U.S. could be moving away from the wider Western alliance.
Trump on Monday also lashed out publicly at Zelensky for saying the war with Russia was likely to continue for some time. “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, using a different spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name.
The Trump administration in late January ordered a stop to all foreign aid, including military aid, except to Israel and Egypt, without a waiver. On Friday, the administration said it was sending Israel nearly $3 billion in new weapons, including more than 35,000 new 2,000 pound bombs, invoking an emergency rule under U.S. arms control laws.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio in recent weeks signed a waiver to exempt Ukraine from the ban Trump imposed on foreign assistance, but senior State Department official Peter Marocco hasn’t sent a required letter to the Pentagon to allow the aid to flow to Kyiv, current officials said.
Withholding the letter has resulted in a de facto halt to new weapons deals for Ukraine using the U.S. Foreign Military Financing system, which is managed by the State Department and pays for weapons for some countries, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the situation.
Ukraine is able to get weapons from the U.S. through several means, including Foreign Military Financing, which provides loans and grants for nations to buy weapons from U.S. defense companies, and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the Pentagon to buy weapons for Kyiv but is currently out of funds. However, presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Defense Department to pull directly from its own stockpiles, has been the most significant tool for arming Ukraine.
On Monday, the White House is holding a meeting to consider suspending shipments using the drawdown authority, a congressional aide and a second person familiar with the matter said.
The shutdown of financing new weapons sales began before Friday’s acrimonious meeting, during which Ukraine and the U.S. were supposed to sign a framework agreement for a mineral-rights deal, but instead canceled the ceremony and a scheduled press conference. But the meeting to consider suspending ongoing weapons shipments to Ukraine drawn from U.S. military inventories emerged after the Friday blowup at the White House.
The State Department declined to comment.
Without new U.S. military aid, Ukraine likely has enough weapons to keep fighting Russia at its current pace until the middle of this year, current and former Western officials say. That is the result in part of a surge of new weapons approved by the Biden administration in its final days.
Over the weekend, European leaders held a summit in London and agreed to form a coalition to forge a Ukraine peace plan to present to Trump that would include ground troops and military assets.
European allies and Ukraine’s own growing defense industry can make up for some of the potential shortfall, but an end to U.S. aid would cut Ukraine’s access to advanced weapons systems that are important to its broader strategy of countering Russia’s full-scale assault on its territory.
If the U.S. shutdown persists, Ukraine would lose its supply of some sophisticated weapons, including advanced air-defense systems, surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, navigation systems and long-range rocket artillery. The U.S. is the sole producer of some systems, including Army Tactical Missile Systems or ATACMs, and M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, which give the Ukrainians the ability to strike far behind Russian lines.
Once those U.S. supplies run out, Ukraine’s ability to conduct longer-range strikes, and to protect its own rear positions, would suffer, officials and analysts say.
“Europe can step in to meet a fair amount of Ukraine’s need for artillery ammunition when combined with munitions already shipped by the U.S. early this year,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who frequently visits Ukrainian front-line units. “The challenges will be more visible as we get into summer.”
Over time, Ukraine could find it harder to make longer term plans for its military arsenal or to buy parts for its existing systems. Ukraine currently builds or finances about 55% of its military hardware. The U.S. supplies around 20%, while Europe supplies 25%.
The Trump administration has sent some of the weapons promised by the Biden administration, the Pentagon said, including “hundreds of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and anti-tank weapons and thousands of artillery rounds that Ukraine is employing on the battlefield when they are available from our stocks.”
The last major new arms package for Ukraine was on Dec. 30, during the Biden administration, and included some advanced weapons like munitions for air-defense systems, Stinger missiles and other weapons. The package was worth $1.22 billion. No new weapons transfers have been announced since.
There are over $3 billion in funds to draw from existing stockpiles that have been authorized by Congress but not allocated by the administration, the congressional aide said.
