Trump ‘to pause military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky shows commitment to peace’

In an order that will take immediate effect, Donald Trump paused all military aid to Ukraine, including weapons already in transit until Volodymr Zelensky ‘demonstrates a good faith commitment to peace’.

Donald Trump has ordered a pause to all military aid to Ukraine, including weapons already in transit, sharply escalating pressure on Kyiv to agree to peace negotiations with Russia.

Us media widely reported the freeze after Mr Trump escalated his row with Volodymyr Zelensky, claiming that he “doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing”, adding that Mr Zelensky “wouldn’t be around much longer” unless he agreed a deal with Russia.

A White House official told US media: “The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

The order takes effect immediately and affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order, according to The New York Times.

Senior Defence Department officials also told CNN, Bloomberg and Fox News the pause would last until the President determined that Ukraine’s leaders had demonstrated a “good faith” commitment to peace.

The officials said all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine would be paused, including weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.

The decision came as Mr Trump met with his aides over the next steps on the Ukraine war, and after he suggested the Ukraine leader wouldn’t “be around long” unless he was willing to make a peace deal with Moscow.

Speaking to reporters in the White House on Tuesday (AEDT), Mr Trump said of Mr Zelensky: “Now maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal. And, if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long, because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal.”

Earlier on Monday (local time), Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Zelensky’s remark on any agreement being ‘far away’ was the “worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!”

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing,” Mr Trump said.

He also took aim at European leaders who rallied around the Ukrainian leader in London over the weekend for saying that “they cannot do the job without the U.S.”

“Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia,” Mr Trump said. “What are they thinking?”

The US has provided more than US$120 billion in aid since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, including $67.3 billion in military aid. But it also provided intelligence, training and rallied the international community to support Ukraine.

After Mr Trump posted his criticism of the Ukrainian leader, Mr Zelensky uploaded his own statement outlining his hopes for a quick end to the conflict in Eastern Europe.

“It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible,” he said. “We need real peace and Ukrainians want it most because the war ruins our cities and towns. We lose our people. We need to stop the war and to guarantee security.”

Mr Zelensky said he was working “with America and our European partners and very much hope on US support on the path to peace.”

“Peace is needed as soon as possible.”

The aid freeze reports came as Mr Trump met with national security advisers including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to discuss the next steps on Ukraine.

“What we need to hear from President Zelensky is that he has regret for what happened, he’s ready to sign this minerals deal and that he’s ready to engage in peace talks,” US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News earlier on Tuesday.

On Sunday (local time) at a briefing in London where he met with European leaders and King Charles following his public clash last week with the US President and Vice President JD Vance, Mr Zelensky made the case for security guarantees – including from America.

He said the strongest security guarantee was to preserve the integrity and strength of the Ukrainian army to ensure it had “sufficient numbers to stop Russia’s aggression.”

However, reflecting on plans floated by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron to raise a “coalition of the willing” to help secure a peace agreement, Mr Zelensky said his understanding was for this coalition to include America.

“We are talking about a contingent. And he, (Sir Keir), means, it seems to me, that the contingent should include the presence of the United States of America in one way or another,” he said. “Probably in different formats – we can talk about air defence, we can talk about intelligence, reconnaissance, etcetera, security in the sky in different formats. I think the United States have a lot of experience here. We’ve seen it in the Middle East.”

Mr Zelensky said he believed support to Ukraine from America would continue because the “failure of Ukraine is not just the success of (Vladimir) Putin, it is the failure of Europe, it is the failure of the United States of America.”

“I believe that the United States and representatives of the civilised world, leaders of this world, I think they will definitely not be helping Putin,” Mr Zelensky said. “But as the President of Ukraine, I work with my team on any challenges, precisely so that my army does not have surprises.”

“An agreement to end the war is still very, very far away. And no-one has started all these steps yet. The peace that we foresee in the future must be just, honest, and most importantly, sustainable,” he said.

In a phone call with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US “is ready to negotiate to end the Ukraine-Russia conflict and will continue working with the UK towards peace in Ukraine.”

But in a sign of the tensions at play, Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said he thought Mr Trump had deliberately escalated the Oval Office clash.

“According to my assessment this was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelensky was saying but clearly a deliberate escalation,” Mr Merz told a press conference in Berlin.

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz had earlier denied that the clash was deliberate.

“This was no ambush,” Mr Waltz told Fox.

“This was an opportunity and a moment, and I think President Zelensky truly did his country a real disservice.”