The Pentagon suspended arms deliveries to Ukraine for a week in February on a verbal order from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. This was reported by Reuters.
According to its data, “11 flights carrying artillery shells and other weapons for Ukraine from an air base in Delaware and a US base in the UAE were canceled on a verbal order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office.”
It is indicated that the order to cancel the flights came after a meeting between US President Donald Trump, Hegseth and other senior national security officials on January 30. According to Reuters sources, the possibility of suspending aid to Ukraine was discussed at the meeting, but the president did not give instructions to stop deliveries. According to the interpretation of some of the agency’s sources, Hegseth may have misunderstood the president and gave the order without a corresponding order.
Reuters notes that the cancellation of flights cost the United States up to $2.2 million. As the agency emphasizes, the suspension of deliveries caused concern in Kyiv. The Ukrainian side tried to obtain information about the reasons through various channels, but the US administration only later explained the pause by “domestic politics,” the publication says. Presumably, high-ranking officials in the Pentagon and the State Department could not explain the reason for the suspension.