U.S. President Donald Trump decided to halt military funding to Kyiv effective immediately on Monday.
European leaders reacted on Tuesday morning to the news that U.S. President Donald Trump had paused American military aid to Ukraine.
“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a White House official told The Epoch Times on Monday.
The pause comes days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump clashed in the Oval Office, which resulted in a U.S.–Ukraine economic deal collapsing.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was one of the continent’s first leaders to respond, saying that a sovereign, pro-western Ukraine that can defend itself means a stronger and safer Poland.
“In the political turmoil and growing chaos, this is what counts most. Whoever questions this obvious truth contributes to Putin’s triumph,” he wrote on social media platform X.
Warsaw’s foreign ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski added that Trump had made the decision without consultation with European allies, saying: “This is a very important decision, and the situation is very serious.
“This sentence may sound banal, but it has great political significance—it was made without any information, or consultation, neither with NATO allies, nor with the Ramstein group, which is involved in supporting Ukraine in its fight,” he told reporters.
France said that Washington’s move only served to strengthen Moscow’s position on the battlefield.
“Fundamentally, if you want peace, does a decision to suspend arms to Ukraine reinforce peace or does it make it more distant? It makes it more distant, because it only strengthens the hand of the aggressor on the ground, which is Russia,” French Junior Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad told France 2.
A British Government spokesman said: “We remain absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine and are engaging with key allies in support of this effort. It is the right thing to do, and is in our interest to do so.”
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the move meant the EU needed to take considerable measures to strengthen its defenses.
She posted on X: “Two things are now essential for peace through strength: additional aid—military and financial—for Ukraine, which is defending our freedom. And a quantum leap to strengthen our EU defense.”
By Guy Birchall
