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Ukraine has reacted with defiance and anger to Donald Trump’s suspension of US military aid, saying the decision amounted to betrayal by an ally and would help Russia to bomb and kill more civilians.
Deliveries of ammunition and vehicles have ceased, including shipments agreed when Joe Biden was president. Some Ukrainians said the biggest impact was likely to be on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself from Russian air attacks, which have escalated in recent weeks.
Ukrainian journalists and commentators noted bitterly that Trump had so far demanded no concessions from Vladimir Putin. The White House’s latest punitive move against Ukraine would lead to “joy in Moscow”, they said.
Instead of acting as a mediator, Trump had sought to squeeze and humiliate Ukraine and force it into territorial concessions that would benefit the Kremlin, they said. Russia says it has “annexed” four Ukrainian regions, including cities it does not control such as Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
There was a consensus that Trump had already decided to cut US aid before his acrimonious White House meeting on Friday with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with the row stirred up deliberately and now used as a pretext. The US was actively aiding Russia, at the expense of Ukraine, it was suggested.
“This isn’t a peace plan, it’s a trap to force our surrender,” Maria Avdeeva, a Ukrainian security expert, posted on BlueSky. She added: “Siding with Russia never helped anyone. Putin isn’t negotiating – he wants our capitulation. Ukraine will remain strong.”
The philosopher and essayist Volodymyyr Yermolenko acknowledged that the consequences would be extremely painful for ordinary Ukrainians. Even before the shutdown, Ukrainian cities and towns were under massive bombardment from drones and ballistic missiles.
“This war is a slaughter. The Russians are mostly killing defenceless civilians. By halting assistance (primarily air defence), Trump is helping to escalate this slaughter even further,” Yermolenko wrote.
Ukrainian soldiers said Trump’s decision inevitably meant more military personnel would be killed. “The number of dead will double,” a marine with the call sign “Tourist” said as he sat in front of a memorial in Kyiv to fallen soldiers and smoked a cigarette. He added: “I drank tea with 50 guys who are now dead.”
Tourist said the cut-off was not a surprise, given the US president’s closeness to Putin, which he said was evident from Trump’s first presidential term. “Ukraine will win, even without American help. We would like a new alliance with Europe,” he added.
“Bart”, a special forces sniper fighting near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, said he was “full of anger”. “America has sided with Russia, North Korea and Iran. They have chosen the side of darkness,” he told the Kyiv Independent, saying the US had abandoned its role of “world policeman”.
There was also praise for Zelenskyy. “What happened in the Oval Office, I think, is that many Ukrainians realised that our president has got balls,” said Artem Kolisnichenko, 28, in Kyiv’s Independence Square. “We can manage somehow without the US. We don’t have any choice.”
Some observers expressed optimism that Ukraine had been written off before and would prevail against the odds once again. They noted that Putin originally expected to conquer Ukraine within three days back in 2022. Three years later, his troops are still fighting and bogged down in an attritional war.
“We shall endure this as well,” the writer and blogger Ilia Ponomarenko posted.
The prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, suggested Ukraine might now struggle to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles. Kyiv relies on donated US Patriot air defence systems to protect its cities but supplies of Patriot munitions, as well as maintenance and repairs, will now stop.
Shmyhal said Ukraine would urgently increase its own production of weapons and ammunition, as well as drones, by way of response. Without giving details, he said the country’s military and government had sufficient “tools” to “maintain the situation on the frontline”.
He also said Kyiv was ready to sign a minerals deal with Washington. The ceremony was abandoned on Friday, after Trump’s disastrous meeting with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
Ukraine’s former defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk said the White House was trying to “bully” Zelenskyy into accepting a bad peace deal on Moscow’s brutal terms. If Kyiv did not agree, US military aid would be halted permanently, he predicted.
“I think this is extremely wrong on all different levels,” Zagorodnyuk told the Guardian. “Also it will not work with Ukraine. Ukraine will never bend to bullies, and to bullying. It’s as simple as that.”
In a video address recorded from Kyiv before Monday night’s announcement, Zelenskyy repeated his calls for a “just” settlement of the war. It followed a hostile social media post by Trump claiming that Ukraine’s president did not want peace.
“We need peace, true and honest peace – not endless war,” Zelenskyy said. He made clear that any deal had to come with security guarantees – the same position that triggered anger from Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, when expressed by Zelenskyy in the White House.
Zelenskyy said security guarantees were “essential” and that a lack of guarantees had allowed Russia to seize Crimea in 2014 and begin a covert takeover of the Donbas region. Subsequently, it led to Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion and to its continuing war, he said.
Without mentioning the US, Zelenskyy added: “The world sees this, and the world acknowledges it. Today, we continued our work with European partners on a special diplomatic and security architecture that can bring us closer to peace.”
