Hegseth halted weapons for Ukraine despite military analysis that the aid wouldn’t jeopardize U.S. readiness

Ministry of Defense It carried a shipment of American weapons For Ukraine this week about what officials said it was concerns about its low stocks. But an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not endanger the US military ammunition supplies, according to three US officials.

The transition to stop the arms shipment has blinded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, members of Congress, Kiev officials and European allies, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

Among the Republican Decision and Democrats who support the help of the Battle of Ukraine against Russia. A prominent democracy in the House of Representatives, Adam Smith from Washington, said it is a deceptive to use the Pentagon military readiness to justify the cessation of aid when it seems that the real reason is simply following an agenda to cut American aid to Ukraine.

Smith, a member of the Armed Services Committee in the House of Representatives, told NBC News: “We are not at any point, more than wisdom, more than in the three and a half years of conflict in Ukraine,” Smith, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told NBC News.

Smith said that his employees “saw the numbers”, without going into the details, that there was no indication of a shortage that would justify the suspension of aid to Ukraine.

The suspension of the shipment of military aid to Ukraine was one side by Defense Minister Beit Higseth, according to three aides in Congress and a former American official who is aware of this. The sources said this is the third time that Higseth stopped alone aid shipments to Ukraine. In the previous two cases, in February and in May, his actions were reflected a few days later.

The sources said that Elberbridge Colby, a senior Pentagon official, is Elberbridge Colby, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Defense for Policy, had supported the moves. Colby has long called for the expansion of the United States’ commitment to Ukraine and the conversion of weapons and resources to the Pacific region to confront China.

Legislative people from both sides were frustrated because they were not notified in advance and were studying whether the late shipment had violated the legislation that imposes security aid to Ukraine, according to Congress aides. These legislators and some European allies were trying to determine the reason for the Pentagon’s request to comment and were scrambling to get the opposite.

The White House defended the decision, saying that it follows a continuous review by the US Defense Ministry to help allies and partners abroad who started last month.

The review began after Higseth issued a note asking the Pentagon employees to review stocks of all ammunition. According to three of the officials familiar with this issue, the evaluation found that some high -precision ammunition stocks were at lower levels but not after the critical minimum.

The participating employees concluded that providing continuous assistance to Ukraine will not drain American supplies without a required threshold required to ensure military readiness, officials said.

The Pentagon did not respond to a comment on Thursday.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell described the assessment as a “ability to review” on Wednesday.

“We cannot give weapons to everyone all over the world,” said Barnell. “Part of our job is to give the president a frame that he can use to assess the number of munitions we have where we send it. This review process occurs at the present time and it is continuing.”

Ukraine has released urgent calls to Washington for more air defense systems, as Russia rose to its bombing from Ukrainian cities. During the weekend, Russia launched its largest air attack Among the three -year -old conflict, 60 missiles and 477 drones were launched throughout the country.

The late shipment included dozens of patriots, the desired weapons of Ukraine to hit the incoming missiles, as well as 155 mm of the artillery round, the Helfire missiles, the accuracy missiles known as GMLRS, the Grenade’s Launcher List, and the STINGER missiles on the surface to air.

In Poland and other European countries, some American weapons have already been loaded on trucks, ready to hand them over to Kiev to help their government hunt Russian missile attacks and the line against land forces in the east of the country. After that, the officers and military officials who deal with the shipment obtained the word that the delivery was canceled.

Three US officials said the arms shipment was approved during the Biden administration. Some weapons were withdrawn from US stocks, where Pentagon receives money to renew them. Officials said other munitions fall within the framework of a program that provides money to purchase new weapons for Ukraine from US defense companies. These weapons are not withdrawn from American supplies.

“Rising mistake”

Since the United States began sending large shipments of weapons to Kiev after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, US officials and leaders are concerned about the state of American stocks of ammunition and other equipment.

Aid efforts have gathered insufficient industrial base to renew the shares of those weapons. This, in some cases, Pentagon is dangerous to some munitions, including 155 mm artillery, according to several US officials and former military officers.

in A message to President Donald TrumpRepresentative Brian Fitzpatrick, R-PA, requested an emergency briefing from the White House and the Ministry of Defense to review the decision, “Withholding urgent military assistance, which saves life to Ukraine.”

Argue Both could have maintained adequate weapons supplies to the American army and send the weapon that Kyiv needed.

Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon official, defended Higseth and Kulby for temporarily stopping.

“They give priority to the safety and willingness of our army because of the satisfaction of the Foreign Policy Foundation, who seem to be often denied by the real restrictions faced by the United States Army,” said Caldwell.

Higseth twice before the suspension of aid to Ukraine without clear coordination with legislators in Capitol Hill or even within the administration. The first time, in February, she extracted a hidden response from the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee in the Senate, Roger Wech, R-Miss. , Who described the move as a “rising mistake”.

Next time it was in early May, according to the Senate Assistant. Either way, the suspension of aid was reflected within days.

MP Michael McCoul, R-Texas, a strong supporter of military aid to Ukraine, said it is very important for Russia to show that the United States stand behind Ukraine.

“We cannot let Putin prevail now. President Trump also knows this and for this reason he was defending peace,” Books on social media. “It is time to show Putin to work. This begins with an guarantee that Ukraine has the Congress authorized to pressure Putin on the negotiating table.”