Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform President Donald Trump or the White House before authorizing a pause on the delivery of weapons to Ukraine last week, according to a report.
CNN cited five sources who revealed that Hegseth’s decision sparked an internal “scramble” within the Trump administration to understand why it was made and to explain the Pentagon’s actions to Congress and to the Ukrainian government.
It was reported on Wednesday that the rationale behind the pause was that U.S. defense officials had become concerned that weapons stockpiles were too low as they looked to divert arms to Israel to help it take on Iran.
The move came at a time when Ukraine was facing intensified attacks from Russia against its civilians, meaning the withholding of American assistance threatened to weaken Kyiv’s ability to counter deadly incoming ballistic missile assaults.
Trump reportedly told Hegseth to restart the shipment of at least some munitions to Ukraine after hearing the news last week, specifically interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems that were already in Poland awaiting delivery.
He then abruptly reversed the call entirely during his private dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening, telling reporters: “We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to, they have to be able to defend themselves.
“They’re getting hit very hard. Now they’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had told ABC News earlier in the day that his country had been counting on the U.S. support.
Zelensky said his armed forces were particularly in need of the 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally promised, which were first pledged by Joe Biden’s administration and which he said were needed to counter the Iranian-made Shahed drones that Moscow has been raining down on his country en masse.
According to CNN, neither Secretary of State Marco Rubio nor the U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, were informed of the pause on weapons shipments to Eastern Europe.
However, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement: “Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the Pentagon conducted a review “to ensure all support going to all foreign nations aligns with America’s interests” and added that the president “has made the decision to continue providing defensive weapons to Ukraine to help stop the killing in this brutal war, which the Pentagon has said they are actively working on.”
She added that Trump “has full confidence in the Secretary of Defense.”
Despite Leavitt’s reassurances, the incident is the latest to raise eyebrows about Hegseth’s chaotic tenure leading the Department of Defense (DOD).
