On July 1, Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby followed orders by Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth to halt a promised shipment of weapons to Ukraine amid its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
A stockpile shortage was primarily cited as the culprit of this decision but was later disproven.
Suspending the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was a unilateral step by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to three congressional aides and a former U.S. official familiar with the matter. It was the third time Hegseth on his own has stopped shipments of aid to Ukraine, the sources said. In the two previous cases, in February and in May, his actions were reversed days later.
NBC News
Having been promised during the Biden administration, the tranche of weapons included “Patriot air defense systems, precision artillery rounds, Hellfire and other missiles that Ukraine launches from its F-16 fighters and drones.”
The decision to halt this weapons shipment is possibly illegal, as Congress may have already funded the munitions. According to the Impoundment Control Act, differences in policy are not a valid reason to block funds mandated by Congress. The Government Accountability Office found that the first Trump administration violated this law when it halted weapons to Ukraine in 2019.
Concerns about the quantity of existing stockpiles also make little sense.
Some munitions are drawn from existing Pentagon stockpiles, with Congress reimbursing the Defense Department to quickly replenish those inventories, often with updated weapons and munitions.
The second stream comes from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, in which the Pentagon finances the acquisition of weapons for Ukraine directly from American military contractors. The firms deliver the munitions to Ukraine over a period of months or years.
The New York Times
A Trump administration official admitted that the remaining $61 billion in funding to replenish stockpiles from drawdowns is enough to last Ukraine for “several more months…”
A Pentagon memo to freeze some weapons deliveries to Ukraine, and redirect some back into American stockpiles and for Israel, while “gathering dust” on the desk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, indicates that Trump’s Defense Department has seen a shift toward a refusal to aid Ukraine.
During the 2025 Hague NATO summit, Trump expressed a desire to send more Patriot systems to Ukraine, albeit with the caveat that “they’re very hard to get.”
This decision comes as Russia has intensified its bombardment on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. On the last weekend of June, Russia conducted one of its largest attacks on Ukraine yet, consisting of “477 drones and decoys and 60 missiles.” Indeed, in June alone, Russia fired 5,438 drones into Ukraine. This figure does not include missiles and other means of aerial bombardment.
