Republicans tear into Pentagon's Ukraine weapons freeze

Yahoo

02-07-2025

Republican lawmakers are slamming the Trump administration's decision to halt some U.S. missile and munitions shipments to Ukraine, warning it risks emboldening Russia at a pivotal point in the war.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said he would be 'aggressively looking into this matter' following the White House's acknowledgment that the Pentagon froze deliveries of critical air defense weapons due to concerns over shrinking U.S. stockpiles.
'We must build up our own defense industrial base here in the U.S. while simultaneously providing the needed assistance to our allies who are defending their freedom from a brutal invading dictator,' the Pennsylvania representative said in a post on X. 'To not do both is unacceptable.'
Fitzpatrick later requested an emergency briefing from the White House and Pentagon.
Lawmakers of varying political stripes called the holdup of weapons approved during the Biden administration a breach of Trump's renewed commitment to Kyiv at last week's NATO summit, where the president floated selling Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. POLITICO first reported the news on Tuesday, and since then, Kyiv has summoned a U.S. diplomat to explain the hold.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said he is probing 'very intensely' whether the Pentagon's freeze is a breach of Ukraine aid legislation that Congress passed in 2024. He also argued the pause is coming 'at the wrong time,' weakening Trump's efforts to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
'If you want to get him to the negotiating table in good faith, you have to put leverage and pressure on him, and that would be Lindsey Graham's economic sanctions and the flow of weapons,' McCaul said. 'If you take the flow of weapons out, yeah, then you're not, you don't have the leverage over Putin to negotiate.'
Democrats — who during Trump's first term pressed for his impeachment over holding up money to arm Ukraine to secure information on the dealings of his main Democratic rival, Joe Biden, and his family — assailed the aid holdup.
But some top lawmakers weren't ready to pin the blame on Trump himself. Rather, they singled out senior Pentagon officials who have been skeptics of further aid to Ukraine.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called out Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby, a longtime proponent of shifting U.S. military resources away from Ukraine in order to beef up Taiwan's defenses.
She argued the pause undermines Trump's commitments at NATO and urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is simultaneously serving as White House national security adviser, to enforce a strategy.
"The Trump administration's mixed messaging is undermining its own agenda to bring Putin to the negotiating table, and this move under Secretary Hegesth's leadership will only make a just and lasting peace harder to obtain," Shaheen said in a statement. "Now is not the time for rogue actors undermining our national security interests.'
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a senior Senate Armed Services Committee member, called the rationale behind the freeze 'fallacious and maybe even disingenuous.' He said he and colleagues in both parties were surprised by the news — and that Ukrainians will suffer.
'They're going to lose more lives, more people will be maimed and injured — more homes, hospitals, schools will be destroyed,' he said in an interview. 'The Russians … are not even making a pretense of going after military targets.'
Other top Republicans were less troubled by reports of the stalled weapons shipments. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), who chairs the panel that controls much of the Pentagon budget, said he still needed to examine what munitions Ukraine has in its inventory, but suggested supply concerns might be warranted.
'I think part of it is the supply. So we've been running through a lot of Standard Missiles, the whole Patriot system,' Calvert said. 'The other part of it is that the Europeans are beginning to pick up the slack.
'I don't know what they have in inventory right now, the Ukrainians. I'll find that out,' he said.
House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said he hadn't been informed of a pause on munitions shipments, but he noted the Trump administration has 'done it several times.'
'I don't know that he paused it for any purpose other than something regular that they do,' Rogers said of Trump. 'I don't have any reason to be upset about it until I learn more.'
Trump's allies on Capitol Hill defended the move. House Foreign Affairs Chair Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said he hadn't heard of a specific delay but said there's a 'constant check and balance' in terms of what gets sent to Ukraine.
'You always want to make sure that your supply line is smooth, but if you're constantly making the checks, then it keeps them constantly vigilant,' Mast said. 'If you weren't constantly doing this, then all of a sudden, they're going to get themselves wrapped around the axle when you really do check it. So I think in the end, it makes for a smoother system.'