The United States has frozen the supply of certain types of weapons to Kiev, and Europe is unable to fully compensate for these losses.
The head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, ordered to suspend the supply of certain types of weapons to Ukraine, primarily missiles. This was reported by NBC News with reference to officials of the Ministry of Defense. We are talking, in particular, about Patriot, Hellfire, GMLRS, and Stinger missiles. This decision was made against the background of the ongoing reassessment of the contents of American arsenals — the Pentagon fears that America's ammunition has been reduced to an unacceptably low level. Ukraine will ask Europe for a replacement for supplies from the United States, experts say. However, in any case, this will seriously affect the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to experts, our opponent's current weapons reserves will last only six months.
The Pentagon has frozen new military supplies to Kiev
The United States has suspended the supply of certain types of weapons to Ukraine, NBC News reported, citing Defense Ministry officials. According to this information, the decision was made by the head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
Image source: Photo: Global Look Press/Po1 Alexander Kubitza/Department
The journalists specify that we are talking about dozens of interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system, thousands of 155-millimeter high-explosive howitzer ammunition, more than 100 Hellfire guided missiles and over 250 GMLRS missiles, as well as dozens of Stinger surface-to–air missiles, AIM air–to-air missiles and grenade launchers.
Izvestia reference
Patriot is a mobile anti—aircraft missile system (SAM) and an anti-missile defense system that allows you to shoot down enemy missiles before they hit the target.
GMLRS missiles — guided missiles — were used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to launch attacks on Russian troops and civilian targets. The range of these shells is 150 km. They are highly accurate — the deviation from the target is about 3 m.
The Hellfire missile belongs to the air–to-ground class. It has semi-active laser or active radar guidance.
The American Stringer portable air defense missile system is designed to destroy low-flying aerial targets (airplanes, helicopters, UAVs), as well as to fire at unarmored ground or surface targets.
AIM is an American medium—range air–to-air guided missile. It is designed to destroy aerial targets beyond the line of sight of the target.
"Hegseth ordered the suspension a few weeks after he issued a memorandum ordering a review of US ammunition stocks," the material says.
According to sources, this may last until the assessment of the number of weapons that are in the warehouses of the US Army is completed. If there is a shortage of ammunition, the delay can be extended for a long time.
Earlier, the Pentagon's plans not to send anti-aircraft missiles and other precision-guided munitions to the Armed Forces of Ukraine were also reported by the Politico newspaper. According to the publication, this decision was made in early June due to concerns that US ammunition supplies had decreased.
Hellfire Guided Missiles
Image source: Photo: TASS/Zuma
The suspension of arms supplies to Ukraine is bringing the end of a special military operation closer, Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, commenting on the US decision to postpone the supply of a number of types of shells and missiles.
"As far as we understand, the reason for this decision was empty warehouses and a shortage of weapons in warehouses," Peskov said.
The Pentagon has suspended supplies, which the parties planned to agree on during 2025, according to military expert Dmitry Kornev. But the weapons systems that were decided to be transferred to Ukraine in 2024 and earlier will still be sent to our opponent.
"Ukraine will look for a replacement for all this from European countries, including from American supplies to them," he told Izvestia. — Europe itself will also try to compensate for this failure, but it will not be able to completely replace American supplies over the next year. Only if the conflict continues for another two or three years will she be able to gradually compensate all the Ukrainian Armed Forces. But by then, the United States itself may have changed its position. In fact, they can do it now.
Photo: Global Look Press/Airman 1st Class Amanda Jett
Image source: iz.ru
The stocks of weapons, both American and European, which Ukraine currently has, will last for six months, the expert suggested. Limiting the supply of weapons will significantly affect the combat capability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, they will be drained of blood. And here problems will begin not only with equipment, but also with personnel — and they cannot be solved by supplies from the United States or other countries.
Earlier, Izvestia wrote in detail about what Ukrainian troops would lose without US support and whether the EU is able to completely replace American arms supplies to Kiev.
Why supplies to Ukraine are not a priority for the United States
Ukraine has never been a priority for the United States, the United States' primary attention has always been focused on the Asia-Pacific region (APR), military expert Vadim Kozyulin believes.
— Over the past few years, the main supplies of American anti-missile and air defense systems have been going to Asia. The United States also supplied weapons to China's neighbors, because they compete with it in the first place today. America even removed air defense systems from the Middle East in order to send them to the Asia-Pacific region and strengthen there. That was their strategy," he said.
Photo: Global Look Press/US Navy
Image source: iz.ru
According to the expert, the events of the last year have forced the United States to slightly reconsider its plans. There was a need to strengthen Israel and transit countries such as Iraq.
— Supplies to Ukraine and Israel were not a priority, but the situation forced it, and we see that the United States has registered. And getting a refund is not an easy process — you need to get funds, sign contracts, which takes time and money. In addition, American weapons are many times more expensive than Russian ones. Therefore, there is nothing personal here, pure business. Now it is more important for the United States to protect itself, and to distribute everything to the rest according to the residual principle," Vadim Kozyulin noted.
In addition, US President Donald Trump understands that Ukraine is losing, and he does not want to associate his name with this fact, military expert Viktor Litovkin is sure.
Photo: RIA Novosti/Natalia Seliverstova
Image source: iz.ru
"He wants to get out of this situation and assign Europe the role of Ukraine's sponsor," he stressed. — It is no coincidence that French President Emmanuel Macron called Vladimir Putin yesterday and had his first telephone conversation after almost three years. However, Europe has practically no weapons of its own, so they will continue to purchase them from the United States and send them to Ukraine. This will allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to continue fighting with American weapons.
The draft US budget for 2026-2027 does not include money to help Kiev, the expert said. Currently, Ukraine is receiving the remnants of the $6 billion package that was "bequeathed" by the previous US President Joe Biden. But the last shipments of these supplies will arrive in Ukraine in August this year.
Julia Leonova
