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Ukraine has reacted with defiance and anger to Donald Trump’s suspension of all US military aid, saying the decision amounted to betrayal by an ally and would help Russia to bomb and kill more civilians.
Deliveries of ammunition and vehicles have ceased, including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was US president. The biggest impact was likely to be on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself from Russian air attacks, Ukrainians said, which have escalated in recent weeks.
Ukraine’s former defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk said the White House was trying to “bully” Volodymyr Zelenskyy into accepting a bad peace deal on Moscow’s brutal terms. If Kyiv did not agree, US military aid would be halted permanently, he predicted.
“I think this is extremely wrong on all different levels,” Zagorodnyuk told the Guardian. He added: “Also it will not work with Ukraine. Ukraine will never bend to bullies, and to bullying. It’s as simple as that.”
In a video address recorded from Kyiv before Monday night’s announcement, Zelenskyy repeated his calls for a “just” settlement of the war. It followed a hostile social media post by Trump claiming that Ukraine’s president did not want peace. “We need peace, true and honest peace – not endless war,” Zelenskyy said.
He made clear that any deal had to come with security guarantees – the same position that triggered anger from Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, when Zelenskyy met with them on Friday in the Oval Office.
Zelenskyy said security guarantees were “essential”. He pointed out that it was a lack of guarantees that allowed Russia to seize Crimea in 2014 and begin a covert takeover of the Donbas region. Subsequently, it led to Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion and to its continuing war, he said.
Without mentioning the US, Zelenskyy added: “The world sees this, and the world acknowledges it. Today, we continued our work with European partners on a special diplomatic and security architecture that can bring us closer to peace.”
Ukrainian journalists and commentators noted bitterly that Trump had so far demanded no concessions of Vladimir Putin. The White House’s latest punitive move against Ukraine would lead to “joy in Moscow”, they said.
Instead of acting as a mediator, Trump has sought to squeeze and humiliate Ukraine and force it into territorial concessions that would benefit the Kremlin, they said. Russia says it has “annexed” four Ukrainian regions, including cities it does not control such as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
There was a consensus that Trump had already decided to cut US aid before his acrimonious meeting on Friday with Zelenskyy, with the row stirred up deliberately and now used as a pretext. The US was actively aiding Russia, at the expense of Ukraine, it was suggested.
“This isn’t a peace plan, it’s a trap to force our surrender,” the Ukrainian security expert Maria Avdeeva posted on BlueSky. She added: “Siding with Russia never helped anyone. Putin isn’t negotiating – he wants our capitulation. Ukraine will remain strong.”
The philosopher and essayist Volodymyyr Yermolenko acknowledged that the consequences would be extremely painful for ordinary Ukrainians. Even before the shutdown, Ukrainian cities and towns were under massive bombardment from drones and ballistic missiles.
“This war is a slaughter. The Russians are mostly killing defenceless civilians. By halting assistance (primarily air defence), Trump is helping to escalate this slaughter even further,” he wrote.
Some observers expressed optimism that Ukraine had been written off before and would prevail against the odds once again. They noted that Putin had originally expected to conquer Ukraine within three days back in 2022. Three years later, his troops were still fighting and bogged down in an attritional war.
“We shall endure this as well,” the writer and blogger Ilia Ponomarenko posted.
