United States President Donald Trump has suspended all military aid to Ukraine after a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Trump suspended over $1 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine amid escalating tensions between the two nations. This decision was intended to pressure Ukraine to begin peace talks with Russia in order to de-escalate the war. Trump justified his decision by claiming President Zelenskyy “doesn’t want peace”.

Trump’s push for peace in Europe has also tied military aid to economic cooperation. Part of America’s proposed peace terms include the signing of a minerals’ deal, which would allow Ukraine to repay the U.S. for the military aid it supplied. This would be accomplished by allocating 50% of revenues earned from future state-owned natural resource assets into a joint investment fund with the U.S. The deal will include minerals such as lithium, graphite, titanium, and uranium.

Trump promised that he would end the war between Ukraine and Russia during his 2024 election campaign. While Trump expressed frustration towards Zelenskyy, he maintained that a peace settlement with Putin was possible. The Trump administration insists that the pause in military aid is temporary and will be reassessed once Ukraine agrees to commence peace talks with Russia.

Republicans have defended Trump’s decision, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio later criticising Zelenskyy’s behaviour at the meeting, and congratulating Trump for “standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before.”

European leaders condemned Trump’s decision. For example, the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, called Trump’s accusation that Zelenskyy was gambling with World War 3 “deeply unreasonable”.

Furthermore, the Ukrainian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, stated that the United States was “destroying” the world order and taking “steps towards the Kremlin”.

In response to the freeze of military aid, the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, drafted an $860 billion plan to “rearm Europe”, allowing member states to aid Ukraine.

On March 4^th, Zelenskyy took to social media to express regret over the meeting and announced that Ukraine will commence peace negotiations with Russia and also stated that the way his meeting “at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be”.

Furthermore, he ended his post stating that Ukraine is ready to sign the U.S.’s mineral agreement “any time and in any convenient format”.

As Ukraine and Russia move to peace negotiations, the suspension of U.S. military aid raises questions about the future of the conflict.