President Trump pauses federal aid to Ukraine
World leaders are reacting to President Donald Trump’s decision to pause federal aid to Ukraine.
WASHINGTON – Administration officials said Wednesday the U.S. is withholding critical wartime intelligence from Ukraine as a way to force President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into peace talks with Russia on President Donald Trump’s terms.
Outraged Democratic lawmakers said the tactic is yet another overly conciliatory Trump administration approach to Russia that could get Ukrainian warfighters and civilians killed as Russian President Vladimir Putin presses his military attack against his much smaller neighbor.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed the U.S. decision in an interview with Fox Business on Wednesday, saying intelligence sharing with Kyiv had been stopped temporarily – along with U.S. military assistance – as a way to pressure Ukraine to more fully cooperate with the Trump administration’s goal of achieving an immediate end to the grinding three-year war.
“Trump had a real question about whether President Zelenskyy was committed to the peace process, and he said, ‘Let’s pause, I want to give you a chance to think about that,’” Ratcliffe told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
But Ratcliffe also praised Zelenskyy, saying the embattled Ukrainian president did the right thing by putting out a conciliatory statement just days after a contentious televised confrontation in the Oval Office with Trump and Vice President JD Vance last Friday prompted a U.S. pullback of assistance.
“President Zelenskyy put out a statement that said, ‘I am ready for peace and I want President Donald Trump’s leadership to bring about that peace,’” Ratcliffe said.
“And so, I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away,” Ratcliffe said. “And I think we’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine as we have, to push back on the aggression that’s there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward.”
The CIA said it would have no further comment in response to USA TODAY’s requests for details about what kind of intelligence was being withheld, and when and whether it might be resumed.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on another Fox News program that Trump would consider restoring assistance to Kyiv if Ukraine agrees to scheduled peace talks and takes unspecified confidence-building measures.
For years, U.S. intelligence has proven critical to Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself from an onslaught of Russian ground and air attacks, including targeting data used to allow it to strike Russian military targets.
In his address to Congress Tuesday night, Trump said he had received a letter from Zelenskyy earlier in the day saying, “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”
Trump also quoted Zelenskyy as saying Ukraine was ready to sign a deal “at any time” in which Kyiv would give the U.S. a share of its critical mineral deposits, which Trump has demanded to repay the costs of U.S. military aid. The president did not provide details in his speech.
‘Cutting off intelligence support … will cost lives’
The withholding of intelligence drew swift condemnation from the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees that oversee the CIA and the 17 other U.S. intelligence agencies.
“Allied intelligence support has been crucial to enable Ukraine to defend itself from the first days of the conflict in February 2022, to unmask Russian invasion plans and intentions, and to save countless innocent lives,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. “Let me be clear: Cutting off intelligence support to our Ukrainian partners will cost lives.”
Warner described the negotiating tactic as part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to give away “American power to Russia – from voting at the UN with Russia and North Korea and against all of our allies, to directly negotiating with Russia at the highest levels while excluding Ukraine, to refusing to condemn Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship while unjustly calling the democratically elected Ukrainian president a ‘dictator’ and ejecting him from the White House.”
“And, all the while,” Warner said, “Putin has not let up on his illegal assault against Ukraine.”
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called for an immediate end to any pause in intelligence sharing.
“As Ranking Member of the Intelligence Committee, I have observed how critical our intelligence relationship with our Ukrainian partners has been in holding the line against Russia’s relentless and brutal offensive,” Himes said in a statement. “It has saved the lives of Ukrainian servicemembers and civilians alike.”
Himes added that the separate pause on providing military supplies, equipment, and weapons to Ukraine “is unconscionable on its own, but the idea that we will now withhold life-saving intelligence from Ukrainians who are fighting and dying is unforgivable.”