stockpiles<\/a> \u201ctoo low\u201d to justify immediate transfer to Ukraine, said a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity, according to Politico, which first reported the halt of military aid.<\/p>\n\u201cAmerica\u2019s military has never been more ready and more capable,\u201d said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, noting a major tax and defence spending bill in Congress would help modernise systems for long-term deterrence.<\/p>\n
Politico and other US media reported that missiles for Patriot air defence systems, precision artillery and Hellfire missiles are among the items being held back.<\/p>\n
Russia intensifies assault<\/p>\n
The delay comes at a precarious moment for Ukraine, as Russia intensifies its aerial bombardment in one of the heaviest phases of the war. Hopes for a ceasefire \u2013 long championed by Trump \u2013 have faded further, with talks between Kyiv and Moscow stalled.<\/p>\n
Since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the US has provided more than $66bn in weapons and security assistance to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Throughout the war, Washington has also urged its allies to supply air defence systems, particularly Patriot missile batteries. However, many NATO members remain reluctant to give up the systems, particularly countries in Eastern Europe that are wary of Russia.<\/p>\n
Trump, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during last week\u2019s NATO summit, acknowledged Ukraine\u2019s request for more Patriots.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do want to have the antimissile missiles, OK, as they call them \u2013 the Patriots,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to see if we can make some available. We need them, too. We\u2019re supplying them to Israel, and they\u2019re very effective. Hard to believe how effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elbridge Colby, undersecretary for policy at the US Department of Defense, said the administration was exploring ways to balance continued support for Ukraine with readiness at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach,\u201d Colby said, \u201cwhile preserving US forces\u2019 readiness for current defence priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missiles for Patriot air defence systems and Hellfire missiles are among items being held back, according to US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[6178,32,299,714,2597,2821,12,7661,657,49,978,286,659,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-231550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-conflict","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-joe-biden","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-nato","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-us-canada","20":"tag-usa","21":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114782735292952685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}