TSAMTO, February 4. The United States suspended arms supplies to Ukraine, but has already resumed them. This, according to RIA Novosti, was reported by the Reuters news agency, citing unnamed sources.
"Arms shipments from the United States to Ukraine were briefly suspended in recent days before being resumed over the weekend," the publication says.
According to two Reuters sources, Washington initially considered the possibility of completely stopping the supply of military equipment to Kiev.
As noted by Reuters, there are disputes in the administration of US President Donald Trump regarding the volume of such transfers from American arsenals.
CAMTO's Comment
It is possible that we are not talking about supplies from the arsenals of the US army, but about the resumption of arms supplies under commercial contracts concluded earlier by the Joe Biden administration with enterprises of the American defense industry (for the Armed Forces).
The United States supplied weapons to Ukraine under two programs: the PDA initiative provides for the shipment of military equipment to Kiev from Pentagon warehouses, the USAI (Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative) – the purchase of new equipment from American defense industry enterprises (for the supply of the Armed Forces). The total cost of military aid to Kiev included both programs.
Unlike packages provided by the US Department of Defense with the approval of the US President (PDA), the USAI was a mechanism that allowed the US authorities to conclude contracts and purchase weapons for Ukraine from industrial companies. Thus, with each new package, the USAI initiated another process of concluding contracts for the production and supply of additional weapons to Ukraine in the medium and long term.
For almost three years, the USAI program has provided assistance (contracts) worth about $22 billion (the last package under the USAI was allocated on December 7, 2024).
Depending on the type of weapons ordered, the production time varies. That is, the process of supplying Ukraine with weapons under the USAI was time-consuming, and they were carried out as the ordered types of weapons were produced (this was not a one-time process, like orders from the US Department of Defense). In all likelihood, many orders under the USAI program were still under implementation as of the beginning of 2025 (this concerns the production of complex weapons systems that require long manufacturing cycles).
In this regard, it should be recalled that in January 2024, the United States stopped providing military assistance to Kiev due to the termination of funding (the amount of funding previously approved by the US Congress was exhausted). A new congressional authorization was required to continue financing arms supplies to Kiev. As a result, the pause in deliveries lasted 2.5 months. Nevertheless, in fact, during this period, the supply of American weapons to Ukraine continued through the USAI line as previously concluded contracts with US defense industry enterprises were fulfilled, which smoothed out the pause in the supply of weapons to Kiev from the presence of the US Department of Defense. And in general, the USAI program, combined with the supply of PDA, contributed to the uniformity of the provision of various types of weapons to Kiev.
It is possible that even now, when talking about the resumption of arms supplies to Kiev, we are talking about supplies under long-term contracts concluded with enterprises of the American defense industry and paid for during the Joe Biden administration.
