Hegseth did not get okay from Trump for Ukraine weapons pause, report says
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform President Donald Trump or the White House before authorizing a pause on the delivery of weapons to Ukraine last week, according to a report.
CNN cited five sources who revealed that Hegsethโs decision sparked an internal โscrambleโ within the Trump administration to understand why it was made and to explain the Pentagonโs actions to Congress and to the Ukrainian government.
It was reported on Wednesday that the decision was made because U.S. defense officials were concerned that weapons stockpiles were getting too low as it looked to divert arms to Israel to help it take on Iran.
The pause came at a time when Ukraine is facing intensified attacks from Russia against its civilians, meaning the withholding of American assistance threatened to weaken Kyivโs ability to counter deadly incoming ballistic missile attacks.
Trump abruptly reversed the call during his private dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening, telling reporters: โWeโre going to send some more weapons.โ
โWe have to, they have to be able to defend themselves,โ the president said. โTheyโre getting hit very hard. Now theyโre getting hit very hard. Weโre going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but theyโre getting hit very, very hard.โ
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told ABC News earlier in the day that his country had been counting on the U.S. support.
Zelensky said his armed forces were particularly in need of the 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally promised, which were first pledged by Joe Bidenโs administration and which he said were needed to counter the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Moscow has been raining down on his country en masse.
According to CNN, neither Secretary of State Marco Rubio nor the U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, were informed of the pause on weapons shipments to Eastern Europe, although Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement: โSecretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government.โ
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the Pentagon conducted a review โto ensure all support going to all foreign nations aligns with Americaโs interestsโ and added that the president โhas made the decision to continue providing defensive weapons to Ukraine to help stop the killing in this brutal war, which the Pentagon has said they are actively working on.โ
She added that Trump โhas full confidence in the Secretary of Defense.โ
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