In February, the office of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave only a verbal order to suspend US military aid to Ukraine. There was no written order. The White House was initially unaware of the order.
This was reported by Reuters, citing sources.
After Donald Trump took office as US President, the Pentagon ordered three cargo airlines based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and at a US base in the United Arab Emirates to stop 11 flights carrying artillery shells and other weapons bound for Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials tried to find out why the deliveries had stopped, but the White House could not answer because they did not have a written order. The flights were resumed within a week.
It turned out that the verbal order came from the office of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after a meeting at the White House on Ukraine. Hegseth and other senior national security officials were at this meeting. The idea of suspending aid to Kyiv was raised there, but Trump did not give any instructions on this.
In a comment to reporters, White House representatives claim that Hegseth acted in accordance with Trump's instructions. However, they do not explain why other officials did not know about the order, and why the order was quickly canceled.
Recall, according to Bloomberg on March 4, US President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of all military aid to Ukraine, including that already sent, in order to put pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy after their dispute.
In addition, the Pentagon temporarily suspended the provision of intelligence to Ukraine.
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