{"id":241036,"date":"2025-07-05T21:11:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T21:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241036\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T21:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T21:11:09","slug":"hegseth-falsely-cited-weapon-shortages-in-halting-shipments-to-ukraine-democrats-say-pete-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/241036\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth falsely cited weapon shortages in halting shipments to Ukraine, Democrats say | Pete Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Hegseth<\/a>, the US defense secretary, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to baseless concerns that US stockpiles of weapons have run too low, it has been reported.<\/p>\n

A batch of air defense missiles and other precision munitions were due to be sent to Ukraine<\/a> to aid it in its ongoing war with Russia<\/a>, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. The aid was promised by the US during Joe Biden\u2019s administration last year.<\/p>\n

But the Pentagon halted the shipment, with NBC reporting<\/a> that a decision to do so was made solely by Hegseth, Donald Trump\u2019s top defense official and a former Fox News weekend host who has previously come under pressure for sharing plans of a military strike in two group chats on the messaging app Signal, one of which accidentally included a journalist .<\/p>\n

Hegseth has now halted US military<\/a> supplies to Ukraine on three occasions, NBC said, with the latest intervention purportedly coming due to concerns that the US\u2019s own weapons stockpile is running too low.<\/p>\n

When the president was asked about the pause<\/a> in shipments to Ukraine by a reporter on Thursday, he claimed that it was necessary because \u201cBiden emptied out our whole country, giving them weapons, and we have to make sure we have enough for ourselves\u201d.<\/p>\n

A White House spokesperson said last week that the decision \u201cwas made to put America\u2019s interests first following a [defense department] review of our nation\u2019s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe. The strength of the United States armed forces remains unquestioned \u2013 just ask Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis capability review,\u201d Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told reporters<\/a> on Wednesday, \u201cis being conducted to ensure US military aid aligns with our defense priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see this as a common-sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what munitions are sent and where,\u201d Parnell added. He also seemed to confirm that there is no current shortage of arms for US forces. \u201cLet it be known that our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The decision surprised members of Congress, as well as Ukraine<\/a> and the US\u2019s European allies. Democrats said there is no evidence that American weapon stocks are in decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we\u2019ve been in the three and a half years of the Ukraine conflict,\u201d Adam Smith, a Democrat and ranking member of the House armed services committee, told NBC. Smith said that his staff had \u201cseen the numbers\u201d on weapon supplies and that there is no justification to suspend aid to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The weapons being delayed include dozens of Patriot interceptor missiles that can defend against Russian missile attacks, as well as howitzers and other missile systems.<\/p>\n

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Russia has recently stepped up its bombardment of Ukrainian cities, using missiles and drones to wreak havoc and terror among Ukrainian civilians. The delay in getting help to fend off these attacks is \u201cpainful\u201d, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker said last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision is certainly very unpleasant for us,\u201d said Fedir Venislavskyi, a member of the Ukrainian parliament\u2019s defense committee, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Defense did not reply to a request for comment on the aid pause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-241036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114802687055339371","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241036","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=241036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}