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LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there can be “no pause” in pressure on Russia after another night of missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, the latest barrage coming the day after the U.S. confirmed it had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.

President Donald Trump’s decision to pause all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing has raised concerns that Ukraine’s air defenses will become less effective in the days, weeks and months to come.

The pause followed last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump. White House officials have suggested the freeze may be lifted if Ukraine takes concrete steps towards a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion.

Ukraine’s air force reported 112 drones and two missiles launched into the country overnight, with 68 drones shot down and 43 lost in flight.

The air force reported damage in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

In Dnipropetrovsk, a ballistic missile hit a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih — Zelenskyy’s hometown.

“A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel,” the president wrote on social media. Four people were killed with more than 30 others injured, he added. The attack came shortly after a group of foreign humanitarian volunteers checked into the hotel, Zelenskyy said. None were hurt.

Sources told ABC News that two U.S. citizens were among the volunteers who survived the strike, working for the Charity fund Freedom Trust and Ukraine Relief organization.

“There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life,” Zelenskyy wrote.

Russian missiles and drone attacks are a nightly occurrence in Ukraine. The country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.

U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.

A Ukrainian intelligence official told ABC News on Wednesday that the intelligence sharing pause included a halt in sharing U.S. satellite imagery through the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with European leaders on Thursday, as he seeks further Western military and political support. The president has consistently requested more air defenses, an issue now more pressing amid the U.S. aid freeze.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that Trump had asked for a “pause” and is committed to peace. The pause, Ratcliffe suggested, prompted Zelenskyy’s statement that he was ready to revive talks over a potential peace deal.

“And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away,” he added.

Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia while seeking to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president. The White House is pushing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the fighting and to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.

In a Tuesday statement, Zelenskyy said the disastrous White House meeting was “regrettable.”

“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” the president said. “Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Nataliia Popova, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.

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(LONDON and ROME) — Pope Francis “remained stationary” on Wednesday, “without showing any episodes of respiratory failure,” according to the Vatican.

The pope received “high-flow oxygen therapy during the day, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation will be resumed during the night,” the Vatican said in its evening update.

Pope Francis spent the day in an armchair, participated in the “ritual blessing of the Holy Ashes that were imposed on him by the celebrant” and received the Eucharist, the Vatican said.

“During the morning he also called Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza. In the afternoon he alternated rest with work,” the Vatican said.

The pope “rested well during the night” and woke shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, his 20th day in hospital, as his condition remains stable and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.

The pontiff had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.

The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.

Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.

He resumed noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight into Wednesday morning “as planned,” according to the Vatican.

The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.

Wednesday marks Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and giving. It concludes with Holy Week, which leads to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

The Vatican said last week that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, major penitentiary and delegate of the pope, will replace Pope Francis at Wednesday’s liturgical celebration for Ash Wednesday in Rome.

The Cardinal will read the Homily prepared by the Pope and the text will be released later today, the Vatican said.

Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.

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(LONDON) — The prime minister of Greenland warned President Donald Trump off his controversial ambition to acquire the territory, writing on social media Wednesday, “Greenland is ours.”

Trump again expressed his desire to take control of the Arctic island — which is a semiautonomous territory within Denmark — in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. America, he said, would acquire the strategic territory “one way or the other.”

Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede dismissed Trump’s remarks in a post to Facebook.

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” he wrote. “We are not Americans, we are not Danes because we are Greenlanders. This is what the Americans and their leaders need to understand, we cannot be bought and we cannot be ignored.”

“The future of the country will be determined by us in our country, of course,” Egede added. “Greenland is ours. We do not want to be Americans, nor Danes, we are Kalaallit. The Americans and their leaders must understand that.”

“We are not for sale and cannot be taken,” Egede said. “The future is decided by us in Greenland.”

Trump has expressed ambition to acquire Greenland since his first term. The mineral-rich island sits in the Arctic Circle along two potential shipping routes through the Arctic — the Northwest Passage and the Transpolar Sea Route — which are expected to become more navigable as climate change and warmer waters causes the retreat of Arctic sea ice.

During his address to Congress on Tuesday, Greenland was central to Trump’s foreign policy remarks.

“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said. “We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”

The president said his administration was “working with everybody involved to try to get it.”

“We need it really for international world security,” he said. “And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

Denmark has also dismissed any suggestion of transferring Greenland’s sovereignty to the U.S.

In February, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it’s not for sale.”

Frederiksen and officials in Greenland have suggested negotiations on an expanded U.S. military footprint on the island in response to Trump’s bid to acquire the territory outright.

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian authorities reported a major Russian missile and drone strike on targets across the country on Tuesday night, with a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanding an immediate end to Moscow’s barrages as a condition for any peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 181 strike drones and three missiles into the country in the latest attack. The air force said 115 drones were shot down and 55 lost in location without causing damage.

The barrage coincided with President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, in which he said a potential peace between the two nations would be “beautiful.” The strikes began before Trump entered Congress and continued into the morning, indicated by Ukrainian air force alerts.

“Russia must stop the daily shelling of Ukraine immediately if it truly wants the war to end,” Andriy Yermak — the head of Zelenskyy’s office — wrote on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — wrote on social media that “inflicting maximum defeat on the enemy” remains Moscow’s “main task.”

Authorities in the southern port city of Odesa reported a “massive” strike, with at least one person killed by drone shrapnel and parts of the city cut off from utilities.

“As a result of the attack in Odesa, critical infrastructure has been damaged and part of the city has been left without electricity, water and heat,” the city’s military administration wrote on Telegram.

“Private houses in the suburbs of Odessa were damaged by debris from downed enemy drones,” the statement said. Fires broke out and a missile hit “an empty sanatorium,” the administration said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces “hit the infrastructure of military airfields, an oil depot providing fuel to [Ukrainian military] units, production workshops and control points for unmanned aerial vehicles, the location of [Ukrainian] special operations forces’ boats.

The ministry said it also shot down eight Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.

Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes have continued as both sides jostle for advantage in renewed peace talks being facilitated by President Donald Trump’s administration. Last month, the effort began with a meeting between American and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia without any Ukrainian involvement. The two sides expressed their intentions to revive bilateral ties and explore areas for future economic cooperation.

U.S.-Ukrainian ties have frayed badly since Trump returned to office with a vow to rapidly end the war. Tensions came to a head in last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between the two presidents and with Vice President JD Vance in attendance. The meeting devolved into a shouting match with Zelenskyy’s team being asked to leave the White House afterwards.

As European allies mobilized to back Zelenskyy and urge reconciliation, Trump announced a freeze on all U.S. aid to Ukraine. Administration officials demanded an apology from Zelenskyy and assent for a controversial deal to give the U.S. access to valuable Ukrainian natural resources.

During his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said he received a letter from Zelenskyy, reading part of it aloud and suggesting that tensions between the two camps had cooled.

“I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

In his first comments after the U.S. aid freeze was announced, Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine is ready to sign the minerals deal “in any time and in any convenient format.”

“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this,” Zelenskyy continued.

Referring to the disastrous Oval Office meeting, the Ukrainian leader said it “did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — a close ally of President Vladimir Putin — warned that the Kremlin “will never” accept a European troop deployment to Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv continue to maneuver for advantage in U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations.

In a wide-ranging interview with blogger Mario Naufal published late Tuesday, Lukashenko praised President Donald Trump’s forthright approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine and suggested Putin was ready to make peace.

Any proposal is unlikely to win Russian support if it includes the deployment of European forces into Ukraine, Lukashenko said.

“Russia will never agree to this,” he said. “At least, this is Russia’s position today. Especially since the leadership of the European Union, primarily in the person of Germany and France, is taking a very aggressive position at the moment.”

But the Belarusian leader also countered attacks by Trump and Putin on the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while offering Belarus as a location for peace negotiations. Unsuccessful ceasefire talks were held in Belarus in the hours and days after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.

“There is no need to push Zelenskyy now,” Lukashenko said, as quoted by the Belta state-owned news agency. “We need to convince and come to an agreement with Zelenskyy, because a large part of Ukrainian society is behind Zelenskyy.”

“If you want, come. Here, it is nearby — 200 kilometers from the Belarusian border to Kyiv,” Lukashenko added. “We will come to an agreement calmly, without noise, without shouting.”

“Tell Trump: I am waiting for him here together with Putin and Zelenskyy. We will sit down and come to an agreement calmly,” he said. “If you want to come to an agreement.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded positively to the offer of talks in Minsk. “This issue has not been brought up or discussed in any way,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency. “This is our main ally. Therefore, for us it is the best place for negotiations.”

Moscow has repeatedly accused NATO and its members of seeking to use Ukraine as a launching pad for aggression against Russia. Putin cited NATO expansion since the collapse of the Soviet Union as a key Russian grievance in the run up to his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Lukashenko appeared to play down that issue. “It is not so much about NATO expansion to the east, but about the threats that were created in Ukraine,” he said of Putin’s decision to launch the 2022 attack.

Leaders in Kyiv have framed the proposed and contentious U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal as a means to securing long-term American backing, and as a possible bridge to lasting U.S. security guarantees. Lukashenko suggested that the deal, which seems to have become a cornerstone of Trump’s Ukraine strategy, may unsettle the Kremlin.

“I have not discussed these issues with Russia and Putin,” he said. “But, most likely, this could be alarming if Russia feels that these agreements will go beyond the framework of economic relations.”

Lukashenko repeatedly appealed directly to Trump, who he described as an “incredible person” and a political “bulldozer.”

The Belarusian leader also encouraged the U.S. to align closer with Russia — a prospect that has unsettled European and Ukrainian leaders since Trump’s return to the White House. Indeed, Trump’s decision this week to freeze all U.S. military aid to Ukraine left officials in Kyiv and across Europe reeling.

“The U.S. is the first country in the world, high-tech, rich,” Lukashenko said. “They are capable of many things. Russia understands this. And Russia will strive to establish very good relations with the United States of America.”

“In order for the planet to be in balance, so that there are no incomprehensible wars, like in the Middle East or in Ukraine, so that there are no conflicts, an alliance between Russia and the United States is possible and very important,” he added. “An alliance for economic development. It is possible and important. It will last a long time.”

The Belarusian leader appeared to chastise Trump for his unique political style, warning that the president must deliver on his promises.

“There are too many statements that should not have been made at all,” Lukashenko said. “You need to cool down after the elections. And you need to take steps in the interests of U.S. voters, first of all, and, secondly, the entire world community.”

“You don’t have much time to prove to American society that you are capable of something,” he continued. “If you don’t do this, the Republicans will suffer a crushing defeat in the next elections. And it will be justified.”

 

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(ROME) — The pope “rested well during the night” and woke shortly after 8 a.m. this morning, his 20th day in hospital, as his condition remains stable and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.

The pontiff had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.

The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.

Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.

He resumed noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight into Wednesday morning “as planned,” according to the Vatican.

The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.

Wednesday marks Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and giving. It concludes with Holy Week, which leads to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

The Vatican said last week that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, major penitentiary and delegate of the pope, will replace Pope Francis at Wednesday’s liturgical celebration for Ash Wednesday in Rome.

The Cardinal will read the Homily prepared by the Pope and the text will be released later today, the Vatican said.

Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.

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(LONDON) — The U.S. embassy in Somalia has warned Americans that they are tracking “credible information” regarding potentially imminent terror attacks “against multiple locations in Somalia including Mogadishu’s Aden Adde International Airport,” officials said.

The U.S. embassy in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu said that all movements of embassy personnel have been canceled until further notice in a statement released on Tuesday.

“The U.S. Department of State level four travel advisory (“do not travel”) for Somalia remains in effect due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, health issues, kidnapping, and piracy,” U.S. officials said.

“The U.S. Embassy in Somalia reminds U.S. citizens that terrorists continue to plot kidnappings, bombings, and other attacks in Somalia,” the statement continued. “They may conduct attacks with little or no warning, targeting airports and seaports, checkpoints, government buildings, hotels, restaurants, shopping areas, and other areas where large crowds gather and Westerners frequent, as well as government, military, and Western convoys.”

Shortly after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the United States used manned fighter jets to conduct an airstrike against Islamic State targets in Somalia in early February.

President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the airstrike, claiming no civilians were harmed in the attack. No details were released about the targets aside from the president labeling the target as a “Senior ISIS Attack Planner.”

Hegseth said the airstrikes were carried out “at President Trump’s direction and in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia.”

The embassy warned that potential methods of attack include, but are not limited to, car bombs, suicide bombers, individual attackers and mortar fire.

“The U.S. government has extremely limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Somalia due to the lack of a permanent consular presence in Somalia,” officials said.

The embassy warned Americans who are still in Somalia to continue to exercise vigilance, review your personal security plans, notify a trusted person of your travel and movement plans and to avoid all large crowds, gatherings and demonstrations.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump signaled another twist in the back-and-forth over his effort to force a negotiated end to the Ukraine-Russia war during his speech Tuesday night.

As he first mentioned Ukraine 90 minutes into his address, Trump provided an update following last week’s blowup in the Oval Office between him and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy left the White House after the shouting match and did not sign an anticipated deal that would have given the U.S. rare minerals from Ukraine.

Trump claimed during his speech Zelenskyy sent him a letter just before his speech indicating that he was ready to come back to the negotiating table and was willing to sign the agreement to give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare materials.

“Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians, he said. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine,” Trump claimed the letter said.

Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials didn’t immediately comment, The letter hasn’t been released by the White House or Ukrainian officials.

Trump indicated to top advisers he wanted to get the deal done before the speech, sources told ABC News.

ABC News’ Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to block a historic $10 billion lawsuit against U.S. gun makers as both conservative and liberal justices raised concerns about allowing the government of Mexico to hold firearm manufacturers liable for cartel violence south of the border.

Federal law grants broad immunity to the gun industry, in part to protect companies from costly litigation that could drive them out of business. Mexico alleges the law creates an exception for “aiding and abetting” the illicit sale and trafficking of guns, which the companies deny.

Mexico has only one gun store but is awash in millions of American-made weapons, most funneled into the country by straw purchasers in the United States. The country claims the companies, including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt, knowingly distribute and market their guns to be trafficked.

By one estimate, at least 200,000 guns flow south of the border each year. The country is seeking $10 billion in damages and court-mandated safety requirements around the marketing and distribution of guns.

“The laws broken here are designed to keep guns out of criminals’ hands. Those violations put guns in criminals’ hands and those criminals harmed Mexico,” Cate Stetson, Mexico’s attorney, told the Supreme Court.

“These acts were foreseeable,” she added. “This court need not vouch for Mexico’s allegations, but it must assume they are true. … Mexico should be given a chance to prove its case.”

Many of the justices seemed unconvinced by Mexico’s case should be allowed to move forward.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested the alleged harms from cartel violence roiling Mexico are too far removed from the manufacturers’ decisions to distribute their products.

“We have repeatedly said mere knowledge is not enough [for liability],” Sotomayor said. “You have to aid and abet in some way. You have to intend and take affirmative action to … participate in what they’re doing.”

Justice Elena Kagan questioned what she perceived as a lack of specificity in Mexico’s allegations.

“There are lots of [gun] dealers. And you’re just saying [the gunmakers] know that some of them [engage in trafficking]. But which some of them? I mean, who are they aiding and abetting in this complaint?” Kagan said.

After Stetson alleged deliberate marketing of guns to cartels, Chief Justice John Roberts voiced skepticism of the claim.

“I mean, there are some people who want the experience of shooting a particular type of gun because they find it more enjoyable than using a BB gun,” he said. “And I just wonder exactly what the defendant, the manufacturer, is supposed to do in that situation. You say no, he shouldn’t be marketing a particular legal firearm because they’re going to go into Mexico at a higher percentage than others?”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh raised concern about the broader implications of a decision allowing Mexico’s suit to go forward.

“What do you do with the suggestion on the other side … that your theory of aiding and abetting liability would have destructive effects on the American economy in the sense that … lots of sellers and manufacturers of ordinary products know that they’re going to be misused by some subset of people?” he asked. “They know that to a certainty, that it’s going to be pharmaceuticals, cars, what — you can name lots of products. So that’s a real concern, I think.”

Stetson replied, “If you have a product manufacturer of a dangerous product that is alleged to have done all of the things knowing who they’re selling to and what is being done with that product, then and only then, I think, that product manufacturer … has a problem.”

More than 160,000 people in Mexico were killed by guns between 2015 and 2022, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety.

A large majority of guns involved in the shootings came from U.S. border states. More than 40% of illegal guns seized in Mexico over a five-year period came from Texas, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

In 2023 alone, more than 2,600 firearms were seized going south into Mexico, up 65% from the year before, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and 115,000 rounds of ammunition were captured headed the same direction, up 19% from 2022.

A federal district court dismissed Mexico’s case in 2022 citing immunity under federal law. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in early 2024, saying Mexico had made a plausible case for liability under the law’s exception.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide by the end of June whether or not a liability case can move forward.

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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump directed his administration to “pause” all military aid to Ukraine, two White House officials told ABC News on Monday, following last week’s combative Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and with Trump pressuring Kyiv into accepting a peace deal to end Russia’s invasion of the country.

The freeze in American aid poses a severe strategic problem for Ukraine, which has become reliant on military and economic support from its Western partners as it tries to repel Russia’s three-year-old invasion and stave off President Vladimir Putin’s push for a peace deal beneficial to Moscow. Experts say that Ukraine and its European partners now produce most of the weaponry destined for the battlefield. But there are crucial American systems that Kyiv will struggle to replace.

“It’s shocking,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “Until the last moment I hoped that Trump wouldn’t do it because he wants to be popular and such a move would definitely cause a backlash.”

“Trump is helping Putin to kill Ukrainians,” he added.

A White House official told ABC News that Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” they said. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

“It looks like Trump is trying to make a deal with Russia over the heads of Ukraine and Europe at the cost of Ukraine,” Merezhko said. “He doesn’t apply leverage over the aggressor but is trying to force the victim, the weaker party, to accept demands of the aggressor.”

“If Trump has a different plan in mind he should have at least talked to Zelenskyy about it behind closed doors, which never happened,” the lawmaker said.

Fellow member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko told Sky News that “thousands of people will die” due to the “catastrophic” decision.

Allied leaders and officials — already mobilizing to provide more aid and political backing for Ukraine in response to the Trump administration’s skepticism — also expressed concern over the White House decision.

“We need the Americans militarily,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said during a Chatham House think tank event in London on Tuesday when asked about the aid pause. “On the battlefield, Russia has not really been advancing in recent months,” she added. “This definitely shouldn’t be a moment where we give in.”

Benjamin Haddad, The French minister delegate for Europe, said the pause to U.S. aid “means moving peace further away.” He added, “To end the war, pressure must be put on the aggressor, Russia,” suggesting European nations must now mobilize to fill the gap left by the U.S.

In Russia, meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, “It is obvious that the U.S. has been the main supplier of this war so far,” as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency. “If the U.S. stops being one or suspends supplies, this will probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace,” Peskov said.

Two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News that around 90% of the military equipment committed to Ukraine by past Presidential Drawdown Authority packages have already been delivered to the country.

That includes the vast majority of critical munitions and anti-armor systems — such as Javelin anti-tank weapons — they said, adding that most of what is still in the pipeline are armored vehicles that take longer to refurbish. Those were expected to be ready for delivery in the coming months, with all PDA equipment previously on track for delivery by August 2025.

A steady flow of arms is still set to move from the U.S. to Ukraine for at least the next several years thanks to contracts Kyiv signed with private American companies for newly produced weapons.

Many — if not most — of those contracts have been paid. The Trump administration could still attempt to disrupt those shipments through the use of emergency authorities, but there is currently no indication it is trying to do so.

Exactly what equipment earmarked for Ukraine will now be frozen in place is not clear.

Among former President Joe Biden’s final four PDA packages announced in December and January — collectively worth some $3 billion — were missiles and support equipment for Ukraine’s U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, rockets for use by American-made HIMARS systems, artillery munitions and surface-to-air missiles for Ukrainian air defense batteries.

Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News that recent estimates indicate the U.S. share of all military hardware sent to the front has fallen to around 20%, with 25% coming from Europe and 55% domestically produced in Ukraine.

But the 20% accounted for by the U.S. “is the most lethal and important,” Chalmers said. “Ukraine will not collapse — they already experienced an aid cutoff last year. But the effect will be cumulative.”

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War suggested that the suspension of U.S. aid will encourage Putin “to continue to increase his demands and fuel his conviction that he can achieve total victory through war.”

Mykola Bieleskov, an analyst at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, told ABC News that Ukraine can keep fighting at the current tempo for six months to a year while Europe and Kyiv try to ramp up production to fill the gap.

A member of Ukraine’s parliamentary defense committee, Fedir Venislavskyi, told Ukrainian media that Kyiv has a resilience reserve of about six months — even without systematic support from the U.S.

Still, Venislavskyi said the situation will be complicated by any freeze in U.S. aid, adding that work is currently underway to find alternative sources of supply for critically important weaponry.

ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Michelle Stoddart, Shannon Kingston and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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