The Donald Trump administration is considering cutting off all ongoing military aid to Ukraine, the Washington Post reported.
The move is in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Oval Office comments and his perceived intransigence in the peace process, a senior US administration official said.
The decision, if made, would apply to billions of dollars worth of radar, vehicles, ammunition and missiles that are set to be sent to Ukraine.
The consideration of a weapons freeze for Ukraine, which is battling a Russian invasion, underscores the dramatic decline in relations between the former allies following an Oval Office exchange between Zelensky, President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
The official dismissed the idea that Trump and Vance's confrontation with Zelensky was premeditated and noted that efforts were made to strike a more positive tone in the planning ahead of the meeting, as evidenced by Trump's withdrawal of his accusation that Zelensky was a "dictator".
Meanwhile, it emerged that Trump had cancelled a planned press conference with the Ukrainian president following the controversial meeting, in which Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance accused Zelensky of not being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Zelensky "is not ready for peace", Trump wrote on social media. He said the Ukrainian leader had not "respected the United States of America in their precious Oval Office" and "he can come back when he is ready for peace". Zelensky, in turn, expressed the opinion in an interview with "Fox News" that relations between the two countries can still be saved.
Separately, the State Department this week terminated an initiative of the United States Agency for International Development that invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore Ukraine's energy grid from attacks by the Russian military. This was revealed by two USAID officials working in the agency's mission in Ukraine to NBC.
"This significantly undermines the administration's ability to negotiate a ceasefire and would signal to Russia that we do not care about Ukraine or our past investments," said a USAID official involved in the mission in Ukraine.
"Russia is fighting a two-pronged war in Ukraine: military, but also economic. They are trying to crush the economy, but USAID has played a central role in helping it be sustainable, including by strengthening the energy grid. "We have provided tremendous support to the Ukrainian government to avoid a macroeconomic crisis," he added.
In addition to terminating the Ukraine Energy Security Project, USAID is also dramatically reducing its presence in Ukraine.
Before the Trump administration's latest actions, 64 U.S. government employees and contractors were working on the ground in Ukraine for the agency. However, only eight of those employees are expected to remain on site in the war-torn country after the Trump administration placed the agency's remaining staff worldwide on administrative leave and ordered those not deemed "critical" to return to the United States.
The two officials warned that USAID's withdrawal from Ukraine would leave its power grid vulnerable in the dead of winter as it braces for new Russian missile attacks.