LONDON — The White House confirmed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s administration froze the shipment of some air defense and precision guided weapons that were on track to be sent to Ukraine.
Officials said the decision followed an assessment of U.S. stockpiles.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DOD review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.
“The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran,” she added in a statement sent to reporters.
Politico first reported the decision. It was not immediately clear whether other shipments of weapons would be released or how much was paused.
Ukrainian gunners prepare to fire a M777 howitzer toward Russian troops at a position on the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 9, 2025.
Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters
The Pentagon declined to provide additional details about the decision.
“America’s military has never been more ready and more capable thanks to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
“Our service members are fully equipped to deter against any threat and the Senate’s recent passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill ensures that our weapons and defense systems are modernized to protect against 21st century threats for generations to come.”
Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby provided an updated statement Wednesday saying the military is continuing to provide Trump “with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end.”
Mykhailo Podolyak — a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office — denied that the U.S. will end its supply air defenses to Ukraine. Speaking on Ukrainian television on Wednesday, Podolyak said negotiations are ongoing on how to provide them, including potential purchases by Kyiv.
“America will not abandon its support for Ukraine in protecting civilians from Russian strikes,” Podolyak said. “There are enough anti-missile systems and missiles for them in U.S. warehouses.”
“Negotiations on their supply to Ukraine, including on a commercial basis, are ongoing,” Podolyak said.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry also commented on the reports, saying in a post to Telegram it “has not received any official notification regarding the suspension or revision of delivery schedules for the agreed defense assistance.” The ministry said it requested a phone call with its U.S. counterparts “to further clarify the details.”
“For Ukraine, it is critically important to maintain resilience, continuity, and predictability in the provision of the agreed defense assistance — especially in strengthening our air defense systems,” the ministry said.
“We are grateful to the United States for all its support and highly value the efforts of our American partners aimed at achieving genuine peace. We emphasize that the path to ending the war lies through consistent and collective pressure on the aggressor, as well as through continued support for Ukraine.”
Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News that the reports are “concerning, of course, but I hope that it’s some kind of technical delay.”
“If not, then it might have negative impact on our defense capabilities — especially when it comes to air defense,” Merezhko added. Any hint of a delay in aid, the lawmaker warned, would “embolden” Russian President Vladimir Putin “to intensify bombardments.”
Ukrainian servicemen walk past a Patriot air defense system at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on August 4, 2024.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images
The military shipment was frozen comes just a week after Trump signaled his openness to selling Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
After meeting with Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Trump said, “They do want to have the anti-missile, missiles,” Trump said of Ukraine. “As they call them the Patriots, and we’re going to see if we can make some available.”
“You know, they’re very hard to get. We need them too. We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective, 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective,” Trump said.
“As far as money going, we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of spirit,” Trump added.
The Patriot system is especially valuable to Ukraine, having been used to down Russian ballistic missiles, drones and aircraft since arriving in the country in the spring of 2023.
Russia is intensifying its near-nightly drone and missile attacks on cities and targets all across Ukraine.
June saw Moscow set a new monthly record for the number of long-range drones and missiles launched into Ukraine — 5,438 drones and 239 missiles — according to figures published by the Ukrainian air force.
The U.S. remained the most generous single contributor of aid to Ukraine as of April 2025, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a research group based in Germany that tracks support from foreign governments toward Ukraine.
The U.S. has contributed around $130 billion in total aid to Ukraine since 2022, of which $74 billion is military assistance. Combined, European Union nations have contributed more overall — $157 billion — but less than the U.S. on the military front, at slightly less than $73 billion.
Ukraine’s budget for military and security spending approved by lawmakers in late 2024 was around $53.7 billion.
Trump has repeatedly raised the prospect of curtailing or ending U.S. military support for Kyiv, both on the campaign trail and since returning to office in January. A nine-month pause on U.S. aid in 2024, due to a gridlocked Congress, forced Kyiv to consider a future without American assistance.
Those fears materialized in March 2025 when Trump imposed a week-long freeze on all American military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The flow soon resumed, but Trump’s frustration has only deepened as U.S.-brokered peace talks floundered.
The administration approved a $50 million sale of military aid to Ukraine in April, but only after Kyiv signed off on a controversial minerals sharing deal.
The White House is also yet to use some $3.9 billion earmarked to fund military aid to Ukraine — to be drawn from existing U.S. stocks, meaning it can be delivered quickly — that former President Joe Biden was not able to spend before the end of his term.
Zelenskyy said early this year that American aid accounts for 30% of Ukrainian weaponry. Though other estimates go as low as 20%, Washington remains a key benefactor — particularly for advanced weapons systems for which Ukraine has no domestically- or European-produced analogues.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty, Kelsey Walsh, Molly Nagle, Patrick Reevell and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
