On June 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Trump administration had decided to transfer a missile defense unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) aid package from Ukraine to the Middle East - where a part of the US military is stationed.
This means that Kiev will no longer receive what is considered a strategic weapon in confrontations with Russian UAVs, especially the Geran-2, despite Zelensky's promise of a package of tens of thousands of missiles from the previous US administration.
In an interview, Mr. Zelensky added that former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had promised Ukraine to ship up to 20,000 anti-UAV missiles while Mr. Joe Biden was still President of the United States.
The Ukrainian leader admitted that Kiev would hardly gain an advantage on the battlefield, and would even suffer more losses if Washington stopped any aid package, especially anti-UAV missiles.
Mr. Zelensky's disclosure of the above information has led many experts to believe that Washington is in the first steps of a plan to stop arms supply to Kiev in the context of President Trump's repeated criticism and indifference to military aid packages.
On May 16, Mr. Trump publicly criticized the previous administration for its decision to support Kiev with billions of dollars in weapons, saying that this caused a lot of waste to Washington's budget. I hate to see that amount of money thrown through the windows, Trump said.
Trump said the US Congress is also very upset with the expensive aid Washington has sent to Kiev. He said Zelensky's ability to mobilize aid from the US is declining over time.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also recently missed a NATO meeting on military aid coordination for Ukraine. This is the first time the US has made such a move since the conflict broke out in 2022, while the amount of weapons to be disbursed committed by the previous administration is still nearly 4 billion USD.
