The U.S. has paused some weapons shipments to Ukraine with artillery and air defenses among the withheld munitions. Putin continues to reject a ceasefire, Macron tells Zelenskyi after his phone call with the Russian leader. Russian natural gas exports to Europe fall to lowest level in half a century.
U.S. pauses some weapons shipments to Ukraine with artillery, air defenses among withheld munitions
U.S. officials said Tuesday that the White House was halting some weapons deliveries to Ukraine out of concern that its own stockpiles have declined too far. “This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement emailed to U.S. media outlets.
Among the weapons affected are interceptors for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided artillery shells and missiles launched by Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets, the Financial Times said, citing senior U.S. officials.
This is the second pause since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office. In March, the White House briefly halted all military aid to Ukraine. Intelligence sharing was also briefly paused, but both were resumed a week later. Last month, the U.S. diverted counter-drone capabilities away from Ukraine and to American forces in the Middle East.
The U.S. military aid halt was first reported by Politico. The initial decision to withhold some aid promised during the Biden administration came in early June, according to three people familiar with the issue cited by Politico, but is only taking effect now as Ukraine is beating back some of the largest Russian barrages of missiles and drones at civilian targets in Kyiv and elsewhere.
Among the munitions now being withheld are “a mix of air defenses and precision weapons,” Politico said.
The decision was driven by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, and was made after a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles, leading to concerns that the total number of artillery rounds, air defense missiles and precision munitions was sinking.
The White House confirmed on Tuesday that it had paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine. It made no announcements of further steps or a new Ukraine strategy.
Elbridge Colby, Defense Department undersecretary for policy, said in a separate statement Tuesday night in response to the move that the “Department of Defense continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end. At the same time, the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that U.S. service members were “fully equipped to deter against any threat.” “The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran,” per a statement from White House spokesperson Anna Kelly that was shared with outlets including Axios.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it had “not received any official notifications” about the “suspension or revision of the delivery schedules” for U.S. military assistance and has requested a phone conversation “to further clarify the details,” the statement said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry summoned the top official at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and said afterward that “the parties discussed ongoing consultations at all levels regarding defense supplies and further contacts between Ukraine and the United States.”
Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Mariana Betsa met with interim U.S. Chargé d’Affaires a.i. to Ukraine, John Hinkel. “Any delay or slowing down in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace,” the ministry said in a statement after the meeting.
On Wednesday, advisor to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said that the Patriot interceptors are still being provided. “Deliveries are ongoing as of today,” he told the Ukrainian FREEDOM TV news outlet. “It would look very strange — it would look inhumane — to stop supplying interceptor missiles, especially for Patriot systems, which clearly and significantly protect civilians across Ukraine.”
Putin continues to reject ceasefire, Macron tells Zelenskyi after phone call with Russian leader
French President Emmanuel Macron has reached out to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodomyr Zelenskyi to brief him about his phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News said. Macron talked to Zelenskyi before and after his call with Putin to brief him on the talks.
The French president told Zelenskyi that Putin’s stance on ending the war in Ukraine hasn’t changed and he continues to reject the ceasefire, said one of the people speaking on condition of anonymity as the talks are private.
In their first call in almost three years, Macron and Putin appeared on Tuesday to find some common ground on Iran, but they continued to be at loggerheads over the war in Ukraine, The New York Times said.
On Ukraine, Putin reiterated his position to Macron that the war was “a direct consequence of the West’s policy,” which he said had “ignored Russia’s security interests” over the past few years.
Macron urged Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire. The Élysée Palace said “the two presidents will also continue to talk about this issue.”
In Macron’s last call to the Kremlin, in September 2022, the two men discussed the safety of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant occupied by Russia.
Russian natural gas exports to Europe fall to lowest level in half a century
A halt to the flow of Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine hit hard Gazprom’s gas supplies to the EU, The Moscow Times said on Wednesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
Between January and June, Gazprom shipped just 8.33 billion cubic meters of gas to European clients, according to figures compiled by Reuters from daily data on TurkStream, the only remaining active pipeline from Russia to Europe.
That represents a 47% drop from the same period in 2024 and puts Russia on track to deliver less than 16 billion cubic meters to the continent this year. That is a far cry from the 175 billion cubic meters sent in 2021, before the invasion of Ukraine upended the energy relationship between Moscow and the West.
Russia’s gas exports to Europe have not fallen so low since the early 1970s.
By 1975, the Soviet Union was already delivering 19.3 billion cubic meters annually to Europe. Just five years later, after a major pipeline agreement with West Germany, exports had surged to 54.8 billion.
Efforts to reroute exports have so far yielded limited success. The Power of Siberia pipeline to China, opened in 2019, delivers about 20% of the volumes once sent to Europe.
As a result, Gazprom is awash in gas it cannot sell. Of the 416 billion cubic meters the company produced in 2024, it managed to sell only 355 billion, leaving an estimated 60 billion cubic meters unused — roughly equivalent to the United Arab Emirates’ entire annual output.
According to Reuters, Russia supplied about 63.8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Europe by various routes in 2022, Gazprom data and Reuters calculations show. That plummeted by 55.6% to 28.3 bcm in 2023, but increased to around 32 bcm in 2024.
At their peak in 2018-2019, Russian annual gas flows to Europe reached between 175 bcm and 180 bcm.
On January 1, 2025, Ukraine halted Russian gas supplies to European customers that pass through the country, after a prewar transit deal expired at the end of last year.
Ending the transit of Russian natural gas through Ukraine has dealt Moscow a significant blow in its attempts to use energy as a weapon, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said, calling the move “one of Moscow’s greatest defeats.”
