U.S. Pauses All Military Aid to Ukraine

To be read in conjunction with: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43228029

It would be one thing if there was a clear policy and adherence to it. In that case, you could discuss and reason in good faith. However there is no such indication that this decision is based on a considered policy.

Trump's supporters would say that this is a result of not wanting the US being involved in foreign conflicts. That is a laudable goal, however that is not what is happening here. From the article

> On Friday, the administration said it was sending Israel nearly $3 billion in new weapons, including more than 35,000 new 2,000 pound bombs, invoking an emergency rule under U.S. arms control laws.

This just makes it look like a petty tantrum at best and a wilful desire to cleave our relationship with Europe at worst.

Yes, we can all argue that Europe needs to be less dependent on the US, however what's on the other side of that is not pretty for the United States. Our ability to have the world's de facto reserve currency and hence our ability to sustain debt loads way in excess of usual is largely dependent on the US being the world's cop and sole superpower.

A truly multipolar world might be good for the world, but it's certainly not going to be good for the United States.

History has a way of repeating itself.

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who feels like world peace has been unraveling for decades, slowly reaching a breaking point?

I don't know what happens when the U.S. eventually pulls out of NATO, a scenario that seems more possible than ever based on the actions of the current Administration. Will Europe be able to stand its ground against Russia and China?

We now have world leaders armed with nuclear weapons, the most terrifying creations in human history, openly threatening each other and growing hostile.

I honestly, worry about the world we are creating for our children.. or perhaps my thoughts have been overtly influenced by Social Media..

Richard Nixon on Soviet Union

“We must be ever watchful when dealing with regimes whose actions have often betrayed their promises.”

Ronald Reagan

“I call the Soviet Union an evil empire.”

George H. W. Bush on Russia

“The history of deception and coercion reminds us that trust is never given

lightly—it must be earned and continuously verified.”

George W. Bush

“We call on Moscow to immediately cease its aggressive actions and respect the sovereignty of its neighbors. We cannot afford to trust a regime that repeatedly flouts international norms.”

Donald Trump

“I have great respect for Putin.”

I have a very good relationship with him [Putin].”

Trump no doubt will say this is a negotiating ploy to get Zelensky to make concessions but you have to wonder why all the concessions have to be made by the victim and not the aggressor. Why not ask Putin to pause killing Ukranians or return some of the kidnapped children or some token of goodwill?

Thus two messages for every other country:

1. Make nukes, never give up on those regardless of what assurances of safety you get

2. If you are bigger and stronger - you are right, do whatever you want, international laws and rules do not matter any more

Lets see where all this will bring the world to in the next 10 years or a generation.

while pausing the “aid” may save the US gov money; the money was mostly coming back to the US anyway in the form of weapons purchases. NYT:

> The order takes effect immediately and affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order. Mr. Trump’s directive also halts hundreds of millions of dollars in aid that Kyiv can use only to buy new military hardware directly from U.S. defense companies.

What would it take for the Republican congress to consider impeaching him and Vance? Trump sending military aid to Russia? Crashing the economy? Defying the courts?

We might actually find out at this rate.

Empires usually fall very slowly, and then all of a sudden. I wonder where we're at ?

Nobel prize argument looks bizarre. why bother with such puny goal when you have agi race to win.

i think it's just about not wasting more money for nothing. Israel on the other hand was and still is the "51st state" bearing strategic significance. Ukraine however is not

the rear earths deal has been designed to screw Zelensky over and make him a got

let Putin has more of a win. save some money for agi race

Russia will reciprocate regarding Iran, I think

EU not gonna do anything cuz it's EU

profit

Now it is clear that USA takes Putin's side in the war.

The only peace plan Trump has is to humiliate Ukraine ans push it to accept surrender to Russia with reparations payments to USA.

It’s appalling to see so many comments here defending what’s going on.

I’m trying to take it in good faith and accept these people actually think this instead of being paid to spread Russian disinformation. So, for those that are in good faith, as an European, I’ll explain mine (and my close circle) position:

It’s true that the USA doesn’t have any obligation of helping Ukraine and should be up to us, Europeans, to step up. But, Trump didn’t need to be a Russian disinformation asset about it and go through that, despicable , petty, childish display in the White House, where, preying together with his VP, they tried to frame Zelenskyy and Ukraine for starting a war.

They could just politely, and diplomatic reduce US aid, while still abiding by the most basic, absolute truth: Putin started this war and all fault for it lies in Russian hands and Ukraine is just a victim in all this.

This would be the upright, sensible and intelligent position to hold if they really just didn’t want to continue contributing to Ukraine’s defense with US’ money.

Comments are disappointing for hacker news standard.

This pause was predictable (I predicted it in Nov 2024). It's negotiation leverage to steer toward an immediate resolution of the war.

An immediate resolution of the war cuts losses: Ukraine loses territory, but keeps its sovereignty.

The challenge is that there aren't many other viable paths. An indefinite forever war, with high risk of a Ukraine state collapse, is a most likely alternative. A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is another, much less likely alternative. The idea that Russia's economy will collapse is highly unlikely.

The Trump Administration will resume military aid after Ukraine is forced to ceasefire talks. Ukraine will not likely (nor with EU) recognize loss territory. However Russia is likely to hold it de facto.

Although I doubt any peace negotiated will last decades. The reasons for the war are deep.

I know very well it's a drop in the ocean, you can donate to ukraine here

https://u24.gov.ua/

You can decide how to allocate your donation, defense, demining, humanitarian aid (...)

The USA stands in miserable disgrace.

Crazy how you can ruin a nations reputation in weeks..

When will the US start to go all in an deliver military aid to Russia? Like North Korea, Iran and China...

Hello from Ukraine and I need help.

The war in Ukraine has made it impossible to run my startup. Due to unlimited attacks it has become impossible to focus on anything other than the war. Of course, the war certainly needs to be stopped, but no one really knows how to do it correctly and I'm not sure anything good will come of it.

After 3 years of the war, my memory has started to deteriorate and I’ve encountered issues with work and finances. It’s hard to understand how anyone can work during a war and who thought of it, when the planning horizon is just until the next night and then hell begins.

I fear that if U.S. military support stops and the war continues, I will have to urgently move to a safer place.

I am urgently looking for financial help. I have extensive experience in web3 and can work in this field, but only with upfront payment and an immediate start, as my current situation doesn’t allow me to go through tiring technical interviews.

Here, I have created an open letter for companies and individuals who may be interested in my project. Thanks for any feedback.

https://www.acpul.org/blog/Open-Letter

mail: web3future + protonmail % com

This was clearly the plan all along. The farce at the White House was just the pretense.

Hesgeth is sending an extra $4B to Israel (in case anyone thinks this is about saving money).

Ukraine is just the beginning. The peace deal being negotiated includes NATO withdrawing to 1990 borders.

Zelensky's Ukraine stood and fought against Russia for 3 years.

Trump's USA surrendered in 6 weeks.

"Free world" my ass. As a European, the US has always been my favorite country and I've been basically universally pro-US all my life. The Recent US decisions managed to turn it 180 degrees for me, in a matter of basically a couple of months. As I consider myself to be a more or less statistical normie, I assume theres many, many more people like me. So: fuck US & eat shit, go suck Putins dick while the EU & the rest of the true free world should focus our efforts on getting nukes, investing in military and intelligence, and leveraging new drone & radar technologies. Theres honestly never been a better time, geopolitically and technologically, to wane off of US-dependence.

I don't know how much the US sent to Israel to fight in Gaza lately but palestinians in Gaza aren't exactly on the same level as the russian military, so the needs of Israel aren't even close to the military aid that went to Ukraine.

But what I know and for a reality check: the amount of military aid the US sent to Israel since Israel exists is less than the amount of money sent by the US to Zelensky.

In addition to that, although I don't doubt warcrimes were committed by russia, I haven't seen videos of russian soldiers parading with the naked bodies of women they just raped nor vids of russian soldiers calling their parents saying: "I just strangled an entire ukrainian family with my hand mom!".

I also haven't heard of many russian civilians keeping ukrainian hostages, including babies, in their homes [1].

Had russians behaved like that relations between the US and Russia may have been worse than they are now.

This is about Ukraine and Russia. Leave your disgusting comparisons outside this thread.

[1] which some here consider is justified resistance btw

Every time I ask rhetorically what a known, paid Russian asset would do differently as President of the US than Trump is doing, I get crickets from Trump supporters.

That is another pressure tactic so the EU can sell increased arms spending to its citizens.

The EU leaders, who are naive to the extreme, comply. They make peace plans that Russia is known not to accept. Once that is done, they'll keep the conflict on a low flame until the US feels getting involved again.

Which can happen at any moment, including under Trump within the next two months.

Trump has been deliberately provoking the EU's nationalistic feelings, starting with Greenland and ending with the Zelensky fallout theater.

If the EU had any pride, it would negotiate with Russia directly, skipping the US. Reopen Nordstream and see if the purportedly Russia-friendly Trump agrees.

Regarding Trump being a Russian asset: It has happened before, with Hillary Clinton and Sergey Lavrov initiating a "reset" in US/Russia relations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reset

Why is Hilary Clinton not called a Russian asset?

While I find the Russian invasion of Ukraine appalling, as a counterpoint to all the "Trump is destroying the US' reputation" mono-point that I've read so far (although I agree with that, too): John Maersheimer [1] gave a great explanation and prediction (~10 years prior) of why the whole thing happened. The US saw Russian weakness, decided to expand NATO to Ukraine, and the Russians said "no way will we let NATO be on our border, we'll destroy Ukraine first". We ignored them because they were weak, and they did what they said they would do. So I'm a little torn, because the situation is unwinnable without a major commitment, which nobody wants to do, and is not even in our interests, since we have a peer-competitor conflict shaping up with China. But our hubris caused the whole situation.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4

It seems like Ukraine is insisting on a “security guarantee.” Can someone explain how the U.S. providing a security guarantee wouldn’t increase the risk of american boots on the ground in Ukraine?

People would say Budapest Memorandum give Ukraine the rights to its 2,000 Soviet nuclear weapons. That's not what it said.

People would say that the same memorandum says Ukraine security is absolute. Not that either.

People would say in 2014, US installed new Ukraine government via propaganda. Looks dubious too.

People would say Ukraine shut down 11+ political parties who opposed current Ukraine government; some parties were funded by Russia. That part remains true.

Newspaper and TV in Ukraine were nationalized partially with money by USAID, that was uncovered by US DOGE.

Elections were "suspended" in Ukraine. Last May 2024 was supposed to have a nationwide election. Definitely true.

Seems like Ukraine is following US foreign policy that led to demise of dictators like Mossadegh, Árbenz, Diệm, Noriega, Qadaffi, Saddam.

Is Zelensky a dictator now?

Time to pick up the slack Europe. You spent decades shit talking the US, laughing at how much the US spends on defense, calling the US the "world police", demanding they close military bases, etc.

Now that the US is packing up and going home, the same people are screaming for the US to stay and continue being the exact thing they shit talked the US for.

During the cuban missile crisis back in 1960ish, R̶u̶s̶s̶i̶a̶n̶ Soviets actually had reached the point where they had launch-ready, on-ramp nuclear missiles. We learned some 20 years later that the US had deployed nuclear missiles of their own in Turkey, and the agreement was to remove those missiles in return. Back in those days, we had no "nuclear suitcase" for approving a nuclear launch, and we had US warships surrounding Cuba ("quarantine", brilliant Pres. Kennedy!), themselves encircled by Soviet nuclear-equipped submarines. I'm glad these men knew what is war like, and didn't get humanity dragged into a MAD, like all of these civilians today are trying to do. Let's just do a cease-fire, whatever the reason, let's just stop firing, and let's talk. The enemy is the enemy, this is what it is, but let's not forget, quoting Hemingway, that they are the enemy just because we were born on this side of the mountain, and them on the other side. If we dehumanize the enemy, what are we then?