The US’ role as Ukraine’s biggest arms supplier is at an end and if Ukraine wants American weapons in the future, it will only be for cash on the barrelhead, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a Friday press conference.
The Ukrainian leader, in response to a reporter question about past and future American assistance to Ukraine, said that Kyiv has no expectations of future US assistance without paying for it first.
“If we are talking about anything in the future, new support, new support packages, then the United States of America can set whatever conditions they see fit. It’s clear that that team [the Trump administration] will do nothing for us in the future without being paid. They say that officially,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky, in past statements, has said Ukraine manufactures about 40% of its weapons with the remaining 60% split roughly equally between deliveries from the US and Ukraine’s other allies.
From February 2022 to February 2025, the US transferred to Ukraine $64.1 billion worth of weaponry, while Ukraine’s other allies, led by Germany and the UK, sent $65.8 billion, according to data compiled by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
US-developed heavy Patriot anti-aircraft missiles are usually considered the most critical piece of American military kit for Ukrainian defense capacity, because the 1990s-era weapon is the only missile in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.
The Kremlin in the past has split its ballistic missile attacks between Ukrainian military production facilities in large cities and homes and businesses in large cities. Individual strikes have, in some cases, caused dozens of fatalities but had little visible effect on Ukrainian military manufacturing.
Ukrainian frontline troops, since Russia’s invasion, have employed US-made tactical equipment ranging from M4 rifles, body armor and helmets, Javelin anti-tank missiles, M2 .50 machine guns, and M40 automatic grenade launchers to major weapons systems like the M1A1 Abrams tank, the M270 and HIMARS precision-guided rocket artillery platforms and Hawk and AIM-9 anti-aircraft missiles.
Among Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) service personnel, US gear is generally liked for lethality and reliability, but sometimes criticized for complexity and high cost. Some Europe-made weaponry, like Germany’s Leopard 2 tank or Sweden’s NLAW anti-tank missile, are preferred by Ukrainian troops to the comparable US product.
An American system particularly favored by Ukrainian soldiers is the M2A2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, a battle taxi with a reputation for excellent cross-country maneuverability, all-around sensors, and rugged construction protecting the men inside. Ukraine has received more than 300 Bradleys, according to Pentagon statements.
According to a Sunday report by Ukraine’s AFU-run Armiya news channel, Ukrainian military maintainers, over 2024, doubled capacity to overhaul and return to combat damaged Bradleys, from 10 to 20 systems in a month. Spare parts are, for the most part, readily available and where unavailable machining new parts is possible, that report says.
A week-long White House embargo on all transfers of weapons, spare parts, maintenance supplies, and even US-developed military intelligence to Ukraine in early March halted all US military support to Ukraine, even tactical software updates for F-16 fighter jets donated to Ukraine by Denmark and Norway. White House officials said the cut-off had been reversed in mid-March.
Data compiled by open-source air traffic monitors showed a full halt to US Air Force supply flights to a NATO logistics hub in Rzeszow Poland from March 3 to March 26, and a near total stop to civilian military charter supply flights over the same time frame.
Open-source flight tracking platforms show that US supply flights carrying military materials for Ukraine appear to have restarted, and by late March were landing at Rzeszow at typical frequencies. The researcher OSINTtechnical said on Monday: “The US aid shutdown to Ukraine is clear(ly visible) in the (March) data, but the last week has seen a ramp up in flights.“
Rzeszow Airport, from March 25-31, received probable trans-Atlantic supply flights from US Air Force Bases in South Carolina, Florida, the District of Columbia, California, New Jersey, and Illinois. Most were civilian 747 cargo planes operated by the longtime US military contractors, open sources showed.
A heavy lift An-124 Ruslan, with a cargo capacity of 150 tons, operated by Ukraine’s Antonov Design Bureau, flew from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Rzeszow on March 28-29, a Kyiv Post review of open-source flight records found.
Shorter-range military flights landing at Rzeszow over the past seven days were registered as originating from Verona, Italy; Ruislip and Brize Norton, UK; Berlin, Germany; Orleans, France; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Oslo, Norway; and Brno, Czech Republic. The Royal Air Force, Dutch, and French Transport Command flights were supply-related, but Kyiv Post could not determine if the delivery was for Ukraine support or some other NATO mission.
The major Australian television company ABC, in a March 24 report, said that “several” US logistical units that had long been based at Rzeszow had been sent back to the United States. The base is the main transport hub for about 80% of all military-technical aid to Ukraine passing through Poland, the report said.
Aside from air via Rzeszow, Ukraine receives military material by sea, primarily via the ports Odesa and Ilychevsk, and by rail and truck from Poland and Romania.
The White House on Friday handed the Zelensky administration a draft contract for massive Ukrainian concessions to US big business for future development of Ukraine’s energy and mining sectors, tied to US arms deliveries to Ukraine in the past.
The deal, theoretically worth half a trillion dollars, proposes minimal capital investment by American firms and guaranteed profits to them. Instead of substantial US capital contributions to the bilateral development project, the value of past US arms and financial transfers to Ukraine would, per the terms of the US development offer, be considered debt Ukraine would have to work off to pay US “investors,” Zelensky said. Ukraine would not agree to that, he added.
Zelensky’s US counterpart, Donald J. Trump, in pre-election campaigning and in recent statements, accused Ukraine of bilking the US of billions of dollars, and claimed Zelensky was responsible for the massive theft of US donations. Trump has not advanced evidence to back up the claim.
Ukrainian and international media have confirmed that US arms deliveries to Ukraine reach soldiers consistently, but sometimes with delays. Fact checks have demolished Trump’s claims that Ukraine “owes” the US for $350 billion in support. The actual value of US assistance to Ukraine, some in the form of aid and some in the form of grants, is about one-third what Trump has claimed, the Kiel Institute report said.