Trump’s White House Blindsided by Hegseth’s Halt to Ukraine Aid, Report Says

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered a pause in military shipments to Ukraine following a Jan. 30 Oval Office meeting with US President Donald Trump, despite the latter giving no such order.

This revelation comes as the Trump administration seeks to adapt its Ukraine policy after it ostensibly failed to achieve a swift end to the Russian invasion in Ukraine as promised earlier.

In a Reuters report Tuesday, Hegseth purportedly halted flights to Ukraine from Air Force Bases in Delaware and Qatar without Trump’s order after the Jan. 30 meeting. 

Reuters, citing official records, said 11 military flights were cancelled, costing the government between $1.6 and $2.2 million, before resuming on the week of Feb. 3, 2025, on the intervention of former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who was pushed out of the role last Thursday.   

Reuters said the  administration’s about-face reveals an “at-times-haphazard policy-making process within the Trump administration and a command structure that is unclear even to its own ranking members.”

Hegseth’s alleged halting of military aid came before the official pause on military assistance and intelligence sharing in March following the Trump-Zelensky Oval Office debacle, when the Trump administration declared a halt to all military aid, including training and intelligence sharing.

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Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense says ground robotic systems are now a regular presence on the front line, performing logistical tasks and providing combat support, as well as helping with medical evacuation. President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the expansion of these systems in 2026, explaining that their main purpose is to reduce the number of soldiers directly exposed to enemy fire.

The US resumed military aid on March 11, following Kyiv’s openness to a US-brokered 30-day ceasefire.

Fresh, but fewer supplies

A recent Kyiv Post analysis noted that public flight tracking data shows an increase in American military cargo planes landing in Rzezow, Poland, in May of 2025, the primary military logistics hub for Western military support to Ukraine.  

This increase in support follows last week’s major news of the signing of the minerals deal  between the US and Ukraine.

While military transport flights have increased between April and May of 2025, they are approximately half the amount of freight air deliveries as compared to a year before in April 2024.  

Europe has pledged to step into the vacuum should the US withdraw its support to Ukraine. But, it has recently rolled back earlier proposals for deploying tens of thousands of European forces in Ukraine under a “Coalition of the Willing” as it was reportedly deemed too risky.

Trump to date has not sought an additional supplemental aid package from Congress for Ukraine, but recently approved $50 million in direct commercial sales (DCS) of defense-related products.