The US is halting the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine, and reports indicate that some of the most effective and necessary American weapons the country has received could be affected. Ukraine says it is working to get answers.
Hits to air defense interceptor capacity, for instance, could hinder its strained batteries at a moment when Russia is ramping up its attacks. Over the weekend, it struck Ukraine with one of the largest bombardments of the war.
The decision to cancel a shipment of weapons and ammo that had been promised by the Biden administration was confirmed on Wednesday.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told Business Insider that “this decision was made to put America’s interests first following a DoD [Department of Defense] review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe.”
She added that “the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran.”
News on the decision was first reported by Politico, which said that it came after the Pentagon reviewed its stockpiles and expressed concern that some critical munitions were in dwindling supply, raising questions about US readiness. The Pentagon has made threats like China a priority, and readying to meet that threat would require a significant amount of weaponry.
A US defense official told BI that DoD continues to provide President Donald Trump with “robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end.” At the same time, they said, the department is also “rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a later briefing that the pause comes amid an ongoing capabilities review for the department. He characterized it as a common-sense approach to determine what weapons are going where and for what purpose.
Freeze on critical munitions
Neither the White House nor the Department of Defense specified the type of weapons being withheld, but a number of reports indicate that key US systems could be impacted, including howitzers, Patriots, and HIMARS, systems that have been critical in this war. The air defenses, in particular, have been critical in shielding Ukraine’s cities from Russian missile strikes.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that officials are clarifying the changes with their US counterparts, and stressed the importance of air defenses.
Trump acknowledged at the annual NATO summit last week that Ukraine wanted more Patriot interceptors and said the US would “see if we can make some available,” but he cautioned that “they’re very hard to get. We need them, too.”
The US-made M1M-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system, manufactured primarily by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, has been key to protecting Ukraine from Russian missile strikes since Kyiv first received it two years ago. Ukraine now reportedly operates six Patriots across the country.
Other countries, like Germany and the Netherlands, have also provided Patriots and could potentially provide interceptors. Ukraine has said it’s running low on the interceptors, meaning the delay of further supplies from the US could be detrimental.
“Patriot systems are vital to Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian ballistic missile strikes,” the DC-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said recently.
This is especially true “as Russia is reportedly increasing its production and stockpile of ballistic missile production capacity to enable larger and more frequent ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine,” it said. Reports indicate that interceptor missiles used by other systems could also be on hold.
The US and Qatar fired Patriots to defend a US base there from Iranian missiles, in what a top general called the largest Patriot air battle in history. And a top admiral warned last year that the shipments to Ukraine were using Patriots that could be utilized elsewhere.
The delay of other systems, like rocket artillery for HIMARS, could hurt Ukraine’s ability to conduct deep strikes against targets behind enemy lines. HIMARS, made by Lockheed Martin, launch GPS-guided rockets with a range of 50 miles. Ukraine made waves with high-profile strikes using HIMARS on columns of Russian troops, command centers, and ammunition depots, constraining Moscow’s logistics network early in the war.
HIMARS can fire a six-pack of precision-guided Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems or one Army Tactical Missile System, a long-range guided missile. Under Biden, the US provided only a limited number of ATACMS missiles due in part to the size of its own stockpile.
While Russian electronic warfare countermeasures and ammunition shortages have reduced the overall combat effectiveness of HIMARS, the weapons have given Ukraine a key capability.
In artillery battles, M777 howitzers have also been beneficial, but 155mm ammunition, said to be part of the hold, can be fired by many artillery systems. Holds could strain those capabilities, as the 155mm shells are in high demand.
What the US decision means for Ukraine
At the moment, Russia is intensifying its offensives across eastern and northeastern Ukraine, targeting cities like Pokrovsk and expanding into the Sumy region. Ukraine faces mounting pressure amid uncertainty with regard to US support, forcing it to rely more on European partners. Ukraine continues to hit deep into Russia, but with weaponry and ammunition shortages and unclear diplomatic prospects, its position is increasingly precarious.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a televised interview on Fox News that “Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get,” and that includes ammunition and air defense.
After the Trump administration’s decision was announced, Ukraine’s defense ministry said it hadn’t received any official notification regarding the suspension of previously agreed-upon aid. It added in a Telegram post that it had requested a call with US counterparts to further clarify details.
Speaking on Ukrainian television on Wednesday, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukraine’s presidential office who previously told BI that losing access to Patriots is a concern, said he didn’t expect the US would end its air defense support.
“America will not abandon its support for Ukraine in protecting civilians from Russian strikes,” he said, adding that “there are enough anti-missile systems and missiles for them in US warehouses.”
Ukraine has found itself short on US support previously when roadblocks in Congress jammed up support, and Trump has at times put pressure on Ukraine to push it toward his administration’s vision for peace, which hasn’t always been consistent with Kyiv’s.
This decision is “not likely to bring about President Trump’s desired ceasefire,” George Barros, a Russian military expert at ISW, said. Trump previously paused aid to Ukraine after his contentious meeting in March with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, seeing it as a needed step toward securing a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia.
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