Ukraine war briefing: Trump suspends military aid to Ukraine after Starmer says keep help flowing

The Trump administration announced the suspension of US military aid to Ukraine hours after Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, said western countries must keep such assistance flowing. The prime minister told MPs on Monday that Ukraine would need money and weapons from allied countries even after a peace deal.

On Tuesday evening, the White House said its pause would last until Trump determined that Ukrainian leaders were demonstrating a good-faith commitment to peace. “This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying. Aid was being reviewed to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution”. Democrats blasted Trump for blocking aid that was approved by Congress on a bipartisan basis.

Donald Trump earlier on Tuesday suggested a minerals deal with Ukraine was not dead. The deal went unsigned on Friday after Trump and JD Vance berated Zelenskyy in a White House argument that was widely seen as being orchestrated to undermine the Ukrainian president’s case for a fair and lasting peace grounded in security guarantees preventing future Russian aggression. Trump said he would give an update on the situation on Tuesday night when he addresses a joint session of Congress.

An oil pipeline burned in Russia’s southern Rostov region after a wave of Ukrainian drones attacked industrial and energy sites. “As a result of a mass drone attack in Chertovsky district, a fire has broken out on an oil pipeline,” posted the acting regional governor, Yuri Slyusar. Slyusar reported another attack near Novoshakhtinsk where previous drone attacks put an oil refinery out of action. The Ukrainian military posted pictures saying they showed the oil refinery again in flames. A drone attack also damaged an industrial site near the border, Slyusar said.

A negligence investigation was under way in Ukraine after a deadly Russian missile strike on a military training ground in the Dnipropetrovsk region at the weekend. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army chief, said Russia had struck with cluster munitions. He did not disclose casualty details. Syrskyi said a training centre head and a commander of a military unit were suspended, with checks ordered into implementation of a ban on outside meetings. “We are witnessing untimely decisions and unlearned lessons,” said Ukraine’s land forces commander, Mykhailo Drapatyi, adding that those responsible would be found. “No one will hide behind explanations or formal reports.” Russia has previously hit Ukrainian troops when they have assembled for parades and ceremonies.

A Russian drone attack damaged energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa on Monday, triggering power cuts and knocking out heating systems, local officials said.

The Institute for the Study of War has said about 620,000 Russian soldiers are operating in Ukraine and Kursk oblast based on Ukrainian military intelligence figures. It represented an increase of about 40,000 personnel compared with late 2024, the ISW said. “Russian authorities reportedly exceeded their recruitment quotas in 2024 and January 2025, likely in part due to increased financial incentives for recruits and prison recruitment efforts that are unsustainable in the medium to long term.”

The ISW said in an assessment that Ukrainian forces had advanced near Pokrovsk, while Russian forces had advanced near Velyka Novosilka and in around Novaya Sorochina in Kursk oblast.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, on Monday defended his staff for travelling to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant through Russian-occupied territory, saying the “exception” was aimed at protecting lives. Staff from the UN nuclear watchdog are supposed to only go there through Ukraine’s territory because Russia occupies the plant illegally. Ukraine’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” by IAEA staff in their latest rotation. Grossi replied on Monday that it was done “for the security of my staff”. A drone strike affected a staff rotation in December and another mission had to be aborted. Kyiv said the disruptions and the IAEA’s breach of protocol were the result of “Russian blackmail”.

Ukraine returned to Russia 33 civilians displaced from the western Kursk region which Ukrainian troops have partly occupied since August 2024. Ukraine separately announced on Monday the return of seven children from areas of Ukraine seized by Russia’s army in a deal mediated by Qatar. Ukraine has been seeking the return of its own civilians caught in Russian-occupied parts of the country since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022, including about 20,000 children who Ukraine says have been forcibly “deported” to Russia.