The Trump administration has resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon ordered some shipments to be halted, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.
The weapons now moving to Ukraine include 155-millimeter ammunition and precision-guided missiles, two White House officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been made public. The officials did not specify the amount of weapons sent or whether they had reached their destination. It was also unclear whether the new shipments represent a change in U.S. administration policy. A pause in some arms shipments last week appears to be linked to concerns that U.S. military stockpiles may be running too low, officials said.
It is unclear exactly when the arms movement to Ukraine began. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the pause last week, which affected a specific recent arms shipment to Ukraine, to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles. The AP notes that the move came as a surprise to the White House.
The pause also affected Patriot missiles, and it is unclear whether the pause in deliveries will continue for them as well. The $4 million munitions are in high demand and were key to protecting a major U.S. air base in Qatar last month when Iran launched a ballistic missile attack in retaliation for a U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that the United States would continue to provide defensive weapons to Ukraine. He dodged questions about who ordered the pause in talks with reporters this week.
“I'll know if a decision is made. I'll know. I'll be the first to know. In fact, I probably would have given the order, but I haven't yet,” Trump said.
Trump has personally expressed disappointment with Pentagon officials over the announcement of the pause – a move he said was not properly coordinated with the White House.
The Pentagon denied that Hegseth acted without consulting the president.
The United States has sent more than $67 billion in weapons and military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded it in February 2022.
Russian authorities have seized assets worth about $50 billion over the past three years, underscoring the scale of the transformation in the economic model of “Fortress Russia“ amid the war in Ukraine, a study published yesterday, cited by Reuters and BTA, shows.
The conflict has been accompanied by a significant transfer of assets, as many Western companies have withdrawn from the Russian market, the assets of others have been expropriated, and those of some large Russian enterprises have been confiscated by the state.
In response to what Russia has called illegal actions by the West, President Vladimir Putin has signed decrees over the past three years allowing the confiscation of Western assets, affecting companies ranging from Germany's “Uniper“ to the Danish brewery “Carlsberg“.
In addition to Western assets, large domestic companies have changed hands based on various legal mechanisms, including the need for strategic resources, corruption allegations, alleged privatization violations or mismanagement.
Moscow law firm NSP (Nektorov, Savelyov and Partners) said the scale of what it called “nationalization“ amounted to 3.9 billion rubles over three years and listed the companies involved.
The study was first published by “Kommersant“, one of Russia's leading newspapers, which said it illustrated a “Fortress Russia“ economic model.
Although the Russian economy performed better than expected during the war in Ukraine, its nominal size in 2024 is $2.2 trillion, according to the IMF - far smaller than that of China, the European Union or the United States.
Russian officials say the war in Ukraine - the biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War - has required extraordinary measures to prevent what they say is a clear attempt by the West to break up the Russian economy.
Putin says the withdrawal of Western firms has allowed local manufacturers to take their place and that Western sanctions have forced local businesses to develop. He has called for a "new model of development" different from "outdated globalization".
But a wartime economy geared to producing weapons and supporting a long conflict with Ukraine has put the state – and the officials who run it – in a much stronger position than private business in Russia, Reuters notes.
The agency recalls that more than a thousand companies – from “McDonalds“ to “Mercedes-Benz“ – have left Russia since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, selling them, handing over the keys to local managers or simply giving up their assets. Others had their assets confiscated and the sale was forced.