The critics and admirers of America’s 47th president disagree on everything and agree on nothing. Some treat his words as gospel; others dismiss them out of hand. But no one can say he hasn’t tried to deliver on campaign promises.

Donald Trump vowed to end Russia’s war in Ukraine — and if there’s one line he’s repeated again and again, it’s this: “Too many people are dying — thousands each week — in a terrible and senseless war.”

Moscow’s war of choice is truly terrible, but to call it “senseless” is to miss the point. Russia has been killing Ukrainians for the crime of being Ukrainian since 2014 — predictably, methodically, relentlessly. Russia’s war is also criminal, under the very rules of warfare America helped enshrine in 1945.

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7 Scenes of vast destruction in Kyiv, where a warehouse was one of the many targets hit during one of Russia’s largest-ever drone strikes. SERGEY KOZLOV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

7 A photo taken and released by Ukrainian State Emergency Service Press Service of a blaze in a private enterprise facility following a Russian strike in Kharkiv region. State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP via Getty Images

Is it senseless for Ukraine to fight back? A war for survival is immensely costly — but to shield your children from Russian missiles is not a choice; it’s a duty. Kyiv has no real options but to resist: Because failure to defend your home is dishonor, followed by annihilation.

After months of frantic diplomacy, it’s finally clear where everyone stands. The White House wants a cease-fire. Ukraine wants peace. Russia wants neither. How do we know?

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Back in March, Trump dispatched Secretary of State Marco Rubio to demand that Kyiv prove it was serious about ending the war. Within 24 hours, Ukraine not only agreed to halt hostilities in the air and at sea — it offered an unconditional 30-day cease-fire.

7 Trump dispatched State Marco Rubio to demand serious action from Russia to end its war on Ukraine. REUTERS

Russia rejected Washington’s peacemaking efforts, stonewalled and openly mocked America. Putin mouthed lies about ending the fighting, while unleashing ever more rockets on Ukrainian cities. On Palm Sunday — just 48 hours after Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff met with him — Russia launched its worst attack since 2023: 84 civilians wounded, including 10 children.

This week, Russia set a new record by launching nine cruise missiles and 355 of the Shahed drones it sources from Iran, in a single night. Over the preceding three nights, it launched around 900 drones — a grim milestone in a war defined by deliberate cruelty and heinous war crimes. While Trump uses words like Putin is “playing with fire,” the Kremlin uses rockets to set suburban neighborhoods ablaze.

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Knowing where we stand inspires little optimism — but it doesn’t determine what comes next. Russia chose to invade. Ukraine found the courage to defend itself. But crushing Russia’s appetite for war will take more than heroism from Kyiv. It will require resolve from America and every nation that stands for freedom. We can and must give peace through strength a chance!

If we’re serious about protecting US interests, let’s get real about the three ways this war could end.

The most likely outcome — and the one Washington is drifting toward — is a frozen conflict, otherwise known as a ticking time bomb. A cease-fire is declared, the front line hardens into a de facto border and Putin keeps what he stole. Ukraine loses what it bled for. The West congratulates itself for “containing the crisis,” and everyone pretends that’s a win.

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What follows is predictable: Moscow prepares for the next invasion. America’s credibility circles the drain and the world tilts toward un-security, where fear reigns, prosperity falters, Russia-China alliance hardens hardens and the cost of freedom rises.

7 Russian leader Vladimir Putin has suggested he is serious about ending his nation’s war in Ukraine, but has only strengthened his attacks on the nation. AP

7 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs a lasting peace for his nation if Russia’s war on Ukraine is to fully end. AFP via Getty Images

Then there’s the most dreadful scenario: We let Russia have its way. A third-rate power with first-rate imperial arrogance, economy the size of Texas and collapsing demographics is handed a victory — not because it deserves one, but because we failed to help Ukraine. We’ve seen this movie before. In the 1930s, giving Hitler what he wanted didn’t end the war — it made it bigger.

The third scenario — called the best case by some — is that we finally step up, arm Ukraine properly to push Russia back. We’ve got the means. What’s missing is backbone. Ukraine regains ground, Crimea stays in legal limbo, and Putin claims victory anyway — because tyrants who control the script never admit defeat.

But even this feel-good outcome would fall far short of justice. If stolen children aren’t returned, if mass graves and beheaded POWs are ignored, if war criminals are drinking champagne in Moscow instead of facing judgment in The Hague — then what exactly will we have won?

7 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin in Munich i 1938, where their historic act of appeasement paved the way for World War II and Germany’s power grab. Getty Images

What’s not even on the table is the one path history tells us brings lasting peace: The aggressor is defeated, disarmed and held to account.

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That means full restoration of Ukraine’s borders, reparations and prison for those who ordered and carried out atrocities. Not to punish the Russian people — but to give them a chance at finally breaking free from a system built on oppression, violence and conquest.

This version of peace — just, durable and enforced — is the one worth aiming for. And yet, somehow, it’s not even part of the conversation.

7 Trump recently declared that Putin has gone “crazy” when it comes to the war. AP

Last weekend, Trump said Putin “has gone absolutely CRAZY!” But madness isn’t the problem — impunity is. Russia’s war makes perfect sense to Putin, that’s why he is waging it.

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The real insanity is pretending that angry words or half-measures will stop him.

Andrew Chakhoyan is an academic director at the University of Amsterdam and previously served in the US government at the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Ukraine would have to cede some of its territory to Moscow to secure a peace deal — as Western diplomats warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not accept any concession on his demands.

Speaking just before today’s peace talks in Saudi Arabia, Rubio said Ukraine must be willing to accept that it cannot recapture all the territory lost so far from the three-year invasion and be “prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians …

“Both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no ­military solution to this situation,” Rubio said of the need to reach a diplomatic end to the war.

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“The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and, obviously, it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014,” he added.

4 National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2025. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

4 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud on March 11 ahead of the peace talks in Jeddah. Saudi Arabia Foreign Ministry/UPI/Shutterstock

Ukraine has so far agreed to a US deal calling for an immediate 30-day cease-fire in the war, which includes the release of prisoners of war and civilian detainees.

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In the joint statement, Washington said it was up to the task, committing to “discussing these specific proposals with representatives from Russia.”

At the White House Tuesday, President Trump said he expected to talk to his Russian counterpart to push the deal forward.

Despite Rubio’s assurance that both sides will have to make compromises in the US-brokered peace deal, Western security officials warned that Putin has made it clear that he will not falter on any of his demands, Bloomberg reports.

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The Russian president has repeatedly said he is not willing to give up any land conquered during the three-year invasion, nor will he allow any Western peacekeeping forces to be deployed to Ukraine.

Putin has also questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ability to participate in the peace talks.

4 Russia has previously said it will not make concessions regarding the land it has conquered over the three-year invasion. REUTERS

Moscow has maintained its “maximalist” demands, which it knows will not be accepted by Ukrainians and Europeans, with the goal of continuing the bloodshed until his demands are met, the security officials told Bloomberg.

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Putin ultimately sees very little incentive in backing out of his demands as he hedges his bets that Zelensky would be blamed for any fallout to the peace deal, the officials added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has insisted that Russia is ready to negotiate an end to the war, but he has yet to discuss what concessions, if any, Moscow is willing to make.

4 Western security officials believe Moscow wants the war to continue to keep pressuring Ukraine to accept all of its conditions. AFP via Getty Images

“Russia is open for peace efforts, for peace settlement around Ukraine, and we actually prefer to reach our goals through peaceful and diplomatic means,” Peskov said.

Zelensky has made it clear that he is willing to give up the land conquered by Russia so long as Ukraine is allowed to join NATO and given real assurances that Russia will end its repeated invasions into the country.

Russia, however, has only reportedly shown willingness to discuss a temporary truce with Ukraine, rather than the “just and lasting peace” outlined by the European Union.

Along with discussing the terms of a potential peace deal, Rubio’s team was able to resolve the military aid and intelligence sharing pause implemented by Trump following his disastrous meeting with Zelensky two weeks ago.

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Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is heading the negotiations with Rubio, also said he’s “hopeful” the talks will persuade Zelensky to sign off on the stalled minerals deal this week.

The US and Ukraine have agreed to resume talks on a mineral-rights deal that would see the US gain access to Ukraine’s rich, largely untapped and lucrative critical and rare-earth minerals.

President Trump took a rare dig at his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, following this week’s NATO summit in the Netherlands before telling a Ukrainian reporter that “we’re going to see” if Washington is able to supply Patriot missile systems and munitions to assist Kyiv in its war against Moscow’s invasion.

“I know one thing: He’d like to settle, he’d like to get out of this thing. It’s a mess for him,” Trump told reporters in The Hague before departing the two-day gathering of Western leaders.

“I consider him a person that’s, I think, been misguided. I’m very surprised, actually. I thought we would have had that settled.”

4 Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured Monday during a meeting with the interim president of Mali. Getty Images

Gray TV reporter Jon Decker had pressed Trump about whether he views Russia as an adversary or whether he believes that the Kremlin has its sights set on territory beyond Ukraine.

“It’s possible. I mean, it’s possible,” Trump replied to the latter question.

Despite some of his high-profile dustups with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump also admitted that Putin was the “more difficult” leader to engage.

“Vladimir Putin has been more difficult. Frankly, I’ve had some problems with Zelensky,” Trump told reporters when asked about his campaign pledge to end the war in 24 hours. “It’s been more difficult than other wars.”

Trump also showed empathy for BBC Ukraine correspondent Myroslava Petsa after she asked the president “whether or not the US is ready to sell anti-air missile systems to Ukraine.”

“We know that Russia has been pounding Ukraine really heavily right now,” she added.

Before addressing her question, Trump asked Petsa: “Are you living, yourself, now in Ukraine?”

4 President Trump listens to a question from BBC Ukraine reporter Myroslava Petsa (below) following the NATO Summit at The Hague in the The Netherlands. instagram/saintjavelin

“My husband is there,” she said. “And me with the kids, I’m in Warsaw [Poland], actually. Because he wanted me to.”

“Is your husband a soldier?” Trump asked, to which Petsa answered: “He is.”

“He’s there now?” the president asked again, with Petsa responding affirmatively.

A visibly moved Trump responded, “wow, that’s rough stuff, right? That’s tough.”

4 BBC Ukraine correspondent Myroslava Petsa revealed to President Trump that her husband is a Ukraine soldier. instagram/saintjavelin

Trump then went on to affirm that Kyiv wants to buy the weapons from the US — and pledged that “we’re going to see if we can make some available.”

“You know, they’re very hard to get. We need them too,” the president said. “We were supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective — 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective. And they do want that more than any other thing, as you probably know.”

“That’s a very good question, and I wish you a lot of luck,” Trump told Petsa. “I mean, I can see it’s very upsetting to you.

“Say hello to your husband, OK? Thank you,” the president added before taking more questions.

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Trump has been growing impatient with Putin, lashing out in response to some of Russia’s most brutal attacks on Ukraine — such as a barrage of 300 drone and missile attacks last month, which prompted the president to rip the Russian leader as “crazy.”

Still, the administration has been reticent about ratcheting up sanctions on Russia, despite a growing push from Congress to do so.

4 President Trump, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during their meeting at the NATO Summit Wednesday. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images

“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the cease-fire, and then who’s talking to them?” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Politico in an interview on the sidelines of the summit.

Trump met with Zelensky earlier Wednesday, after which the the Ukrainian leader said he “congratulated President Trump on the successful operation in the Middle East.”

“It is important that the US actions have weakened not only their nuclear program but also their drone production capabilities. We will continue to keep an eye on the situation,” he said.

“We discussed the protection of our people with the president — first and foremost, the purchase of American air defense systems to shield our cities, our people, churches, and infrastructure,” Zelensky explained in a readout.

“Ukraine is ready to buy this equipment and support American weapons manufacturers. Europe can help. We also discussed the potential for co-production of drones. We can strengthen each other.”

President Donald Trump suggested during a call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the United States take ownership of Ukraine’s power plants as he seeks to bridge a wide divide between Moscow and Kyiv and secure a full cease-fire in Europe’s largest war in decades.

Trump told Zelenskyy that US ownership of Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants “would be the best protection for that infrastructure,” according to a White House readout of the March 19 call, which preceded another night of Moscow and Kyiv exchanging drone strikes and hostilities on the battlefield.

The proposal reflects Trump’s belief that US ownership of Ukrainian assets would effectively serve as a security guarantee for the embattled country because Russia would presumably refrain from targeting them out of fear of escalation with the United States.

Zelenskyy told reporters in an online briefing on March 19 that he and Trump discussed the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine during the phone call. He said he told Trump that Kyiv would be ready to discuss US involvement in modernizing and investing in the plant if it is returned to Ukraine.

Kyiv’s demand for security guarantees lies at the heart of the shuttle diplomacy between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States to secure a peace deal. Zelenskyy wants any final peace deal to include Western security guarantees for Ukraine to deter Russia from invading again, but Trump has so far refused to commit the United States to the country’s defense.

During the call, which the White House described as “fantastic,” Trump promised to look into acquiring more Patriot anti-air missile systems for Ukraine, while Zelenskyy agreed not to target Russian energy assets for 30 days.

Ukraine has struggled to protect its cities from Russian attacks due to a lack of air defense.

Early on March 20, Ukraine’s air force said that its air defenses shot down 75 out of 171 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, with 63 other drones redirected from their targets with use of electronic warfare.

Ukraine’s National Police said that at least 10n people were injured in an overnight air attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kropyvnytskiy, including four children.

The strike damaged residential buildings and private homes. Several of the injured were hospitalized after receiving emergency medical care.

Russia said that it had downed 132 Ukrainian drones overnight, with authorities in the Saratov region confirming that an airfield close to the town of Engels, which hosts a strategic bomber base, had been set on fire.

Russia’s aviation authority Rosaviatsia said arrivals and departures at the Samara and Saratov airports had been temporarily suspended.

Zelenskyy Has ‘Positive’ Contact With Trump

Zelenskyy described his first official contact with the US president since a disastrous meeting in front of the press on February 27, as “substantive and positive.”

But Ukrainian political analyst Petro Oleshchuk told Current Time that it is not clear whether the idea of US ownership of Ukrainian energy assets is something to take seriously or just another “innovative idea” on the part of Trump.

“On the other hand this is perhaps a further development of the idea that was earlier proposed in the context of critical rare earths,” said Oleshchuk, referring to the Trump-proposed deal over access to Ukrainian critical minerals that Zelenskyy left without signing during that visit to Washington.

“It is clear Trump and his circle are looking for profitable things in Ukraine in order to justify for themselves and their partners the need for a US presence in Ukraine. But Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is currently controlled by Russia. And it is hard to imagine how Trump is going to persuade Russia to get out of there,” said Oleshchuk.

Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine, which has killed or wounded more than a million people, a top priority for his administration.

However, Moscow and Kyiv remain so far apart on key issues — such as land exchanges and security guarantees for Ukraine — that the Trump administration will need to use various carrots and sticks if it hopes to bring them together.

In a social media post, Trump said the goal of his call with Zelenskyy was “to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.”

So far, Trump has mainly leaned on Ukraine, temporarily halting military assistance until Zelenskyy agreed last week to a 30-day unconditional cease-fire. Putin rejected the cease-fire proposal during a March 18 call with the US president, settling instead for a temporary halt in energy and infrastructure strikes, the first de-escalation step of the war. Zelenskyy subsequently reciprocated.

Putin agreed to continue talks with the United States toward achieving a full cease-fire. US negotiators will meet with Ukrainian and Russian counterparts in the coming days to work on extending the partial cease-fire to the Black Sea.

Experts say that Putin has not given up on his goals of subjugating Ukraine and will seek to drag out the talks while his forces have the advantage on the battlefield. Russia wants to fully control the four regions of Ukraine it claims to have annexed in 2022. It would fall short of that goal were it to agree to a full-cease fire now.

Trump has threatened to impose tough sanctions and tariffs on Russia if it obstructs the path toward peace deal, but experts question whether the US president would come down hard on Russia considering he values his relationship with Putin.

“Trump has shown that he can pressure Zelenskyy. Is he willing and able to pressure Putin? If not, then what is he going to do? Putin is making it clear that he’s not changing his goals,” Mark Katz, a Russia expert and professor emeritus of government and politics at George Mason University, told RFE/RL.

Putin’s Promise

Shortly after Putin agreed not to target Ukrainian energy facilities and infrastructure during the partial cease-fire period, Russia stuck two hospitals and a railway power station, injuring several people.

Russia has regularly targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure with missiles and drones in an attempt to break the will of the Ukrainian people by denying them light and heat in the winter.

Zelenskyy said earlier that Russia had launched 150 drones at targets that also included energy facilities in the hours that followed the call between Trump and Putin.

Russian troops late on March 19 carried out massive air strikes on Kupyansk that damaged critical infrastructure and caused fires at civilian structures, according to Kharkiv Governor Oleh Synehubov.

Residents of Kyiv told RFE/RL that they did not put much faith in the agreement between Washington and Moscow.

Luke Coffey, an analyst at the Hudson Institute, called Putin’s concession on energy infrastructure strikes “the bare minimum” he could offer Trump.

“With warmer weather in Ukraine, Putin likely would have scaled back strikes on energy regardless,” he said in a tweet, adding that the Kremlin leader “remains the primary obstacle to peace.”

The Kremlin’s readout from the talks suggested the scope of their agreement was limited to a pause in strikes on energy infrastructure, while the wording of the White House’s statement differed slightly, referring to an “energy and infrastructure cease-fire.”

“There must be checks over Putin’s words. And the United States could lead that monitoring…. We will write up a list of buildings and structures hit by Russian drones and missiles. If the Russians stop targeting our buildings, we will stop our strikes on Russian territories,” Zelenskyy said.

“There is a long path to reach first the cease-fire, and then a long-term peace,” he added.

The Kremlin has claimed that it halted any targeting of Ukrainian energy facilities immediately after the call with Trump, and instead accused Kyiv of launching attacks on equipment near one of its pipelines in spite of the agreement.

Ukrainian drones struck an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, igniting a fire and damaging a pipeline connecting storage tanks, Russian emergency officials confirmed, adding that there were no casualties.

Ukraine has often retaliated against the strikes on its power system by targeting Russian oil assets, such as refineries and storage facilities. Russia’s war machine is heavily dependent on oil export revenues, which account for about a third of federal budget revenues.

For this reason, argued Oleschuk, the analyst, adhering to the agreement prohibiting such strikes might handicap Kyiv just as much as it does Moscow.

“People here say that the “sanctions of the drones” are often working more effectively against Russia’s oil and gas industry than the sanctions of the Western partners,” Oleschuk told Current Time.

While Trump described his call with Putin as “very good and productive,” Zelenskyy expressed disappointment with the outcome, saying it showed Putin isn’t interested in peace and was determined “to drag out the war.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on March 18 that fresh talks with Russia on the Ukraine war will now take place on March 23 in Jeddah.

“The devil is in the details. We’ve got a team going to Saudi Arabia, led by our national-security adviser and our secretary of state, and I think, you know, we’ve got to figure out those details,” Witkoff said.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is ready to send a team for further cease-fire discussions with the United States, while reiterating Kyiv will not recognize Russian sovereignty over any occupied Ukrainian territory — a condition for any peace agreement that Putin has voiced several times.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainians expressed alarm and apprehension Tuesday at a U.S. decision to pause military aid that is critical to their fighting Russia’s invasion, as a rift deepens between Kyiv and Washington.

Days after an explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the assistance halted in a bid to pressure Kyiv to engage in peace talks with Russia.

Officials in Kyiv said they were grateful for vital U.S. help in the war and want to keep working with Washington. The country’s prime minister, though, said Ukraine still wants security guarantees to be part of any peace deal and won’t recognize Russian occupation of any Ukrainian land.

Ukraine and its allies are concerned Trump is pushing for a quick ceasefire that will favor Russia, which Kyiv says cannot be trusted to honor truces.

A White House official said the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The order will remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.

Ukraine needs help to fight Russia

Ukraine, which depends heavily on foreign help to hold back Russia’s full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24, 2022, has feared that aid could be stopped since Trump took office.

U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile systems, for example, are a pivotal part of protecting Ukraine. Just as vital is U.S. intelligence assistance, which has allowed Ukraine to track Russian troop movements and select targets.

“I feel betrayed, but this feeling is not really deep for some reason. I was expecting something like that from Trump’s side,” said a Ukrainian soldier fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a daring military incursion in August 2024 to improve its hand in negotiations. The soldier spoke by phone to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

On the front line, where Ukraine is struggling to fend off the much larger and better-equipped Russian army, another soldier said the U.S. decision would allow further battlefield gains for Moscow.

“War is very pragmatic,” he told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity in compliance with military regulations. “If we have weapons, enough ammunition, infantry, armored vehicles and aviation — great. If not, then we’re done,” he said.

He recalled a seven-month delay in U.S. aid that ended in April 2024 but opened a door for the Russian capture of the strategically important city of Avdiivka.

The pause in U.S. aid isn’t expected to have an immediate impact on the battlefield. Ukrainian forces have slowed Russian advances along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, especially in the fiercely contested Donetsk region some 700 kilometers (400 miles) east of Kyiv. The Russian onslaught has been costly in troops and armor but hasn’t brought a strategically significant breakthrough for the Kremlin.

Olena Fedorova, 46, a resident of the southern port city of Odesa, said she hoped Trump’s decision would be temporary because “we really need help.”

U.S. support is vital because Europe cannot fully provide what Ukraine needs in air defense systems, said lawmaker Yehor Chernov. “As a result, this will lead to an increase in the number of casualties among civilians,” he said.

The U.S.-Ukraine relationship has taken a downturn since Trump took office and his team launched bilateral talks with Russia.

Trump says he wants to get traction for peace negotiations. He vowed during his campaign to settle the war in 24 hours, but later changed that time frame and voiced hope that peace could be negotiated in six months.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said U.S. help is “vital” and has saved “perhaps tens of thousands” of civilian and military lives.

But he emphasized at a Kyiv news conference that any peace agreement must be “on Ukraine’s terms, as the victim country.”

Ukraine wants “concrete security guarantees” from Washington, European countries and Group of Seven leading industrialized nations, he said. Giving up territory to Russia, which occupies nearly 20% of Ukraine, “is not possible” under the U.N. Charter, he said.

He repeated Zelenskyy’s position that Ukraine is still ready to sign a lucrative minerals deal with Trump that could be the first step toward a ceasefire.

European allies stress support for Kyiv

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Washington’s decision could act as a spur to a peace agreement.

“The U.S. has been the chief supplier in this war so far,” Peskov said. “If the U.S. suspends these supplies, it will make the best contribution to peace.”

Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. had not consulted with or informed NATO countries before announcing the pause.

Russia will likely try to use the halt in supplies to extend its territorial gains and strengthen its position in prospective peace talks.

Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency quoted Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who chairs the defense committee in the lower house of parliament, as saying Ukraine would exhaust its current ammunition reserves within months. “We need to keep up the pressure and continue to target their bases and depots with long-range precision weapons to destroy the stockpiles,” he said.

Ukraine’s European allies, meanwhile, reaffirmed their commitment to Kyiv.

The chief of the European Union’s executive proposed an 800 billion euro ($841 billion) plan to bolster defenses of EU nations and provide Ukraine with military muscle.

The British government, which has been leading European efforts to keep Trump from pushing to end the war on terms that could favor Moscow, said in a statement that it remains “absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine.”

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense think tank, said Washington’s move could encourage Russia to ask for more Ukrainian concessions, including demilitarization and neutrality.

“This decision is not about economics. It is driven fundamentally by Trump’s view that Russia is willing to do a peace deal, and only Ukraine is the obstacle,” Chalmers said. “But there is no evidence that Russia would be prepared to accept a deal, and what that would be.”

Trump said Monday he is still interested in signing a deal that would hand over a share of Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals to the U.S., an agreement that Zelenskyy has also said he is ready to sign.

“By abruptly halting military assistance to Ukraine, President Trump is hanging Ukrainians out to dry and giving Russia the green light to continue marching west,” said Razom for Ukraine, a Ukrainian advocacy group. It urged the White House “to immediately reverse course, resume military aid and pressure Putin to end his horrific invasion.”