First, there were praises for Putin and Russia and the idea that the new administration "trusts" Moscow more than Kiev. Then, the speeches in Brussels and Munich, saying that it is "realistic" for Ukraine to lose territories and accept that it will not enter NATO. After that, the attempt to force Ukraine to sign an agreement on rare minerals with abusive terms. When Volodymyr Zelenskiy resisted, insults ("dictator") and disdain came, and the encounter at the White House last Friday. Minutes after leaving, the first messages circulated openly that he had to apologize and, probably, resign. Senator Lindsey Graham said it that same afternoon, and Donald Trump outlined it even more clearly this Monday when he emphasized that "a quick agreement must be reached, it can be done very quickly. Perhaps there is someone who does not want to, but if someone does not want to, it won't last long. Russia wants it, and the people of Ukraine want it," he said, clearly pointing at Zelenskiy. The next blow came just a few hours later when Trump took the most serious step to date, ordering the freezing of all military aid to Ukraine as punishment to its leader.
"The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to also commit to that goal," explained a senior White House official quoted by The Washington Post. "That's why we are going to pause and review our aid to ensure it is contributing to a solution."
The decision, a week after the Trump administration voted with North Korea, Russia, and Belarus against a UN resolution condemning the Russian invasion, is a unique turn after three years of war. During this time, allies have sometimes argued with Ukraine about the details, often denied its requests while crossing red lines. They ended up providing planes and missiles when initially they did not dare to go beyond helmets and rifles. But never before had everything been stopped as a pressure measure. Today, the US has left Ukraine even more isolated, facing its most delicate moment since March 2022.
It is a clear ultimatum. The White House, off the record, explains that the decision could be reversed if Zelenskiy shows "good faith" to participate in peace talks, with this twisted and false narrative that he and Ukraine want to continue the war. As the Ukrainian tried to explain on Friday, no one wants peace more than them. And peace is as simple as Russia withdrawing. But Washington has changed its mind, and almost sides, and has decided to cut ties. Either Zelenskiy sits down and gives up his territory and the security guarantees he has been begging for weeks, or he will have to fight against the Russians alone. Without military aid, but also without Elon Musk's Starlink, essential for internet, communications, and satellite information on movements.
The decision was made on Monday afternoon in a high-level meeting attended by Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, a known pro-Russian sympathizer; and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. General Kellogg was not present, perhaps the representative of the toughest and most skeptical wing towards Moscow. "President Trump is the only world leader with options to achieve lasting peace," Rubio said shortly after, in what seems like a diplomatic snub to British initiatives and especially French ones to propose an alternative peace plan.
The move has been planned since Trump returned to power. He detests Zelenskiy, his children hate him and mock him. There is a video of Don Jr, the eldest, explaining the sequence we are now experiencing step by step two years ago. The idea was always to cut off aid to Ukraine to force it to the table by force. The reasons now being cited, starting with Zelenskiy, are just a pretext.
Elon Musk leads the digital hordes that denigrate and insult him, saying he does not want peace for dark reasons. The US Secretary of Commerce, this same Monday, with enormous cruelty and frivolity, mocked him on television because "he wants to regain all the territory" occupied by Russia, calling him a "troublemaker and not a peacemaker because of it."
The White House wants to get rid of Zelenskiy because of personal reasons, as Trump believes that Ukraine harmed him in his first impeachment in his first term, and that Putin is as much a victim as he is of a "witch hunt." He threatened to withdraw military aid back then, long before the total invasion of 2022, if he did not appear on television to announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son.
But besides that, they also want to remove him from the equation because removing the leader who has resisted three years of invasion is one of Moscow's demands, along with keeping what is occupied and closing the doors of NATO. And it is a price that Washington now considers more than reasonable.
In the late evening in Washington, media outlets like Bloomberg, AP, The Washington Post, or Fox News reported almost simultaneously, citing administration sources, that the decision to freeze aid had been approved. It is the ultimate and most powerful blackmail, one that forces Ukrainians to sit at the table to endorse what Putin and Trump decide for them or be left without American aid, essential to continue resisting if Europe does not make a wild turn and double its assistance. Literally.
According to reports, Trump has decided to halt all aid to Ukraine, even that which is already committed or on its way to its destination. Everything that Congress approved last year with great difficulty, including the delivery of weaponry or equipment already in Poland and ready for its final delivery to the Ukrainians, according to Fox News details.
On December 30, former President Joe Biden approved a disbursement of $1.25 billion in weapons and equipment from the Pentagon's reserves for Ukraine, in various phases until June. Shipments have been arriving in Ukraine every two weeks or so since then, covering basic needs. To date, the Pentagon has transferred approximately one-third of the total, meaning that the directive approved today by Trump freezes the remaining two-thirds, according to The New York Times.