Ukraine Reacts To US Slashing Aid For Kyiv
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Cuts to U.S. aid for Ukraine in the upcoming budget "will lead to more casualties" for Kyiv, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker has told Newsweek.
His warning comes as spluttering ceasefire negotiations fail to yield significant progress toward a deal to end the fighting, and Russia keeps up its aerial bombardment of the war-torn country.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told U.S. lawmakers during a committee hearing on Tuesday that there will be a "reduction" in the next fiscal year's budget for aid heading for Ukraine. He did not specify what the cutbacks in the upcoming budget will be.
Any cuts to military aid to Kyiv slashes at Ukraine's ability to defend itself and plays into Russia's hands, said Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
"Such a reduction will lead to more casualties on the Ukrainian side, including casualties among [the] civilian population," he said.
"Anyone in the U.S. who is acting in support of the reduction of the military aid to Ukraine becomes morally responsible for the increased casualties among civilians," Merezhko said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee oversight hearing on the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee oversight hearing on the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 10, 2025.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The U.S. under former President Joe Biden was the single-largest contributor of military support to Kyiv, pledging to support Ukraine for "as long as it takes."
Washington has provided more than $66 billion in aid for Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, including use of existing U.S. military stocks.
Ukraine On Shifting Sands Post-Biden
"This administration takes a very different view of that conflict," Hegseth told lawmakers on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump pledged to end the war in Ukraine in just 24 hours, but his senior officials have grappled with the slow pace of talks and threatened to walk away from negotiations if a deal remains elusive.
The administration thawed relations with the Kremlin, largely refraining from heaping fierce criticism on Russia while publicly taking aim at Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
While Kyiv is no longer as dependent on Western aid as it was in the earlier stages of the conflict, the flow of supplies including ammunition, air defense systems and interceptor missiles is still crucial for Ukraine.
Trump appeared to leverage Ukrainian officials to the negotiating table earlier this year by briefly cutting off military aid and U.S. intelligence.
"We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation's interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe," Hegseth added.
Peace Talks Flounder
Two rounds of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations have yielded agreements on prisoners of war, but no discernible steps toward a ceasefire accord. It is too early to pencil in a third meeting, a spokesperson for Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, adding there is "no pressure" on Russia to sign off on a deal.
Kyiv agreed to a U.S. proposal for a full, 30-day ceasefire back in March. Moscow has not consented to this deal, despite repeated visits from Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to Russia.
Ukraine said Russia has not responded to a document outlining possible ceasefire conditions and the need for a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky.
Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, said Moscow had handed over its own document outlining road maps to stop the fighting, including a pause for up to 3 days on "certain sections of the front."
Zelensky claimed Russian officials at the talks earlier this month admitted openly to Ukraine's delegation that they knew Kyiv could not accept Moscow's conditions.
War Rages On
As the talks rumble on, Russia has carried out intensive aerial strikes on Ukraine, firing ballistic missiles that are hard for Kyiv's exhausted air defenses to intercept, and launched waves of explosive drones toward the country's cities.
Moscow has kept up the pressure on the hundreds of miles of front lines, advancing in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region toward bordering Dnipropetrovsk. The Kremlin has also inched closer to the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, but took a significant hit to its long-range bomber fleet after Ukraine targeted multiple Russian bases with explosive drones at the start of June.
Shrinking aid for Ukraine now will "embolden" Putin, said Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament for the southern Odesa region. "It's completely opposite to President Trump's intention to end the war," he told Newsweek.
Hegseth did not attend a meeting of tens of defense chiefs gathered to coordinate support for Ukraine earlier this month, marking the first time the U.S. Defense Secretary has not appeared at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
Hegseth's Strategic Pivot
Hegseth on Tuesday reiterated the U.S.'s desire to pivot toward the Indo-Pacific to face the "pacing threat" of China, an intention the administration has long made clear.
European countries allied with the U.S. have scrambled to conjure up commitments of increased defense spending, designed to rely less on American personnel and U.S.-supplied kit.
Hegseth, during an address at a major defense forum in Singapore earlier this month, said China was "preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific" and was gearing up for the "real deal" of an invasion push on Taiwan.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway part of mainland China that it intends to one day reunite under central control. But Taipei, which has established a democratic government, asserted its independence from Beijing and aligned itself with Western allies.
China's Foreign Ministry denounced the speech as "filled with provocations and intended to sow division."
"China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S.," Beijing added.
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