President Donald Trump has stopped US military aid to Ukraine following a heated Oval Office argument with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, according to a White House official speaking to CNN on Monday.
This decision came after Trump held meetings with top national security officials.
Experts and officials are concerned that halting the aid could significantly weaken Ukraine’s war capabilities.
The aid will remain suspended until Trump is convinced that Zelensky is committed to engaging in peace talks.
This move is essentially pushing Ukraine to negotiate by threatening more losses in battle.
After over a week of public disputes between the US and Ukraine, this stoppage of aid on Monday highlights the deterioration in the relationship between Washington and Kyiv since Trump took office.
“The impact is going to be big.
I would call it crippling,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who has closely followed the war.
Cancian estimated that Ukraine would feel the impacts of the pause in aid within two to four months, as aid from European countries helps Kyiv remain in the fight for now.
“That’s why they don’t fall off a cliff, but when your supplies get cut in half, eventually that shows up on the front lines,” Cancian said.
“Their front lines would continue to buckle and eventually they would break and Ukraine would have to accept an adverse – even catastrophic – peace settlement.”
But Cancian warned the Trump administration has more forms of aid to Ukraine that can be paused or canceled altogether, including intelligence sharing and the training of Ukrainian forces.
“There might be a way out of this, but it’s going to be extremely humiliating for Zelensky,” Cancian said.
SOURCE:DKlassGh.net