Select Page
Posted by Scott Lucas | Jul 3, 2025 | 0
Eldridge Colby, the Pentagon official who recommended cutting off military aid to Ukraine (PBS)
EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Can Putin Sustain His Invasion to Conquer Ukraine?
Wednesday’s Coverage: Trump Administration Again Halts Arms to Kyiv
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 0816 GMT:
Ukrainian drones have struck a factory in western Russia that produces batteries for drones and glide bombs and parts for ballistic and cruise missiles.
The governor of the Lipetsk region, Igor Artamonov, confirmed the overnight attack on the Energia factory, causing a fire, in the city of Yelets. Residents reported multiple explosions, and employees in nearby workshops were evacuated. No casualties have been reported.
The factory, about 250 km (150 miles) north of the Ukraine border. was targeted multiple times in May.
Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied city of Khartsyzk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Eyewitnesses claimed a missile may have struck a Russian ammunition depot.
UPDATE 0744 GMT:
“Six people familiar with the situation” say those usually briefed on US national security, including top officials and senior legislators, were kept in the dark about the Pentagon’s cutoff of weapons to Ukraine.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted the role of the Pentagon’s director of policy planning, Eldridge Colby:
I think it’s all made by…this Colby guy. We essentially don’t have a National Security Advisor. I’m not even sure [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio was consulted on this one….
There’s internal division in the White House.
A US official said the Pentagon’s decision was uncoordinated and caught the State Department by surprise. Two others confirmed that the Department of Defense’s leaders did not seek any input from the State Department, the US Embassy in Kyiv, or the team of Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.
During last Friday;s briefing on Ukraine for Congress, officials from the State Department and the Pentagon made no mention of the cutoff. They are not answering official inquiries about it, said a Congressional aide.
The order was issued so abruptly that it withdrew an important shipment of arms on the ground in Poland.
A former Pentagon official noted that Colby is one of the few staff with prior government experience and “understands how paper moves in the building in a way most other people who are there now just don’t”.
The source added, “The front office at the Pentagon has been hollowed out and most people there don’t have any experience in government, which is also true at the National Security Council.”
A “White House official” insisted, “This is false. The President and top officials expect the DOD to regularly review aid allocations to ensure they are in line with the America First agenda.”
UPDATE 0646 GMT:
NATO Secretary Mark Rutte has commented on the Trump Administration’s cutoff of weapons to Ukraine: “I totally understand that the US always has to make sure its interests are covered. When it comes to Ukraine, in the short term, Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get.”
He added, in the interview with Fox TV:
I understand the U.S. has to take care of its stockpiles, and at the same time, we have to allow for some flexibility here. Europeans, in the meantime, are really stepping up.
UPDATE 0638 GMT:
Germany’s Foreign Ministry says Russia used the online media outlet Red to sow discontent in German society as part of a disinformation campaign over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Red presents itself as a revolutionary platform for independent journalists. However, it has close links with the Russian state media outlet RT.
Today we can confirm that Red is being used by Russia specifically to manipulate information.
Red’s Turkish parent company AFA Medya and its founder Huseyin Dogru have been sanctioned by the European Union over the Russian invasion and “undermining the democratic political process” in Germany.
The site announced on May 16 that it was closing.
UPDATE 0630 GMT:
An Estonian court has ruled the arson of a restaurant and supermarket last year were ordered by Russian intelligence.
The attack was one of a series across Europe linked to Russia by western officials, seeking to sow division and undermine support for Ukraine.
The Harju county court in Estonia said the perpetrators were two Moldovan nationals who are cousins, both named Ivan Chihaial.
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine and US legislators criticized the Trump Administration’s sudden cutoff of weapons to Kyiv, as Russia continues its 40-month invasion and carries out deadly, record-setting drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians.
The Administration abruptly announced on Tuesday that it was suspending the arms deliveries, authorized during the Biden Administration. The supplies include dozens of Patriot air defense missiles, thousands of 155-mm high-explosive Howitzer munitions, more than 100 Hellfire missiles, more than 250 GMLRS rockets, and dozens each of Stinger surface-to-air missiles, AIM air-to-air missiles, and grenade launchers.
Trump officials declared that a review found stocks of the pledged weapons were low. But the decision appears to be more a question of priorities: the author of the review, the Pentagon’s director of policy planning Eldridge Colby, is a long-time sceptic of assistance for Ukraine: his preference is to focus on possible confrontation with China and Iran.
Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha summoned the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv, John Ginkel, and told him, “Any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities only encourages the aggressor to continue the war and acts of terror, rather than seek peace.”
A Ukrainian official explained, “We counted on many of those systems as they were promised.” He noted the exposure of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure to attack, “That significantly affects our planning.”
Meanwhile, the Kremlin celebrated. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “The less weaponry is supplied to Ukraine, the sooner the [invasion] will end.”
“Time to Show Putin We Mean Business”
A bipartisan group of US legislators assailed the cutoff. Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote:
Now is the time to show Putin we mean business. And that starts with ensuring Ukraine has the weapons Congress authorized to pressure Putin to the negotiating table.
Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, decried “action that will surely result in the imminent death of many Ukrainian military and civilians”. Her fellow co-chair, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, posted:
I will be aggressively looking into this matter and will be demanding accountability. We must build up our own Defense Industrial Base here in the U.S. while simultaneously providing the needed assistance to our allies who are defending their freedom from brutal invading… https://t.co/pRTOMCghWh
— Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (@RepBrianFitz) July 2, 2025
Writing Donald Trump, Fitzpartick requested an emergency briefing from the White House and Department of Defense: “Ukrainian forces are not only safeguarding their homeland—they are holding the front line of freedom itself.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, emphasized that the “fallacious and maybe even disingenuous” decision meant more civilians are “going to lose more lives, more people will be maimed and injured — more homes, hospitals, schools will be destroyed”.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky did not respond directly to the Administration. However, he made his point through a meeting with American entrepreneurs and company representatives: “Our defense is a shared one, and American systems in Ukraine protect not only lives, but also businesses.”
I met with representatives of American companies and entrepreneurs — members of the @ChamberUkraine.
We discussed how important it is to work in Ukraine and with Ukraine — to pay taxes, preserve job opportunities, and create new ones. We also count on the voice of American… pic.twitter.com/kkx2AtdjAP
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 2, 2025
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce insisted, “This is not a cessation of us assisting Ukraine or of providing weapons. This is one event, and one situation, and we’ll discuss what else comes up in the future.”
Share:
Scott Lucas is Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute, University College Dublin; Professor Emeritus of International Politics at the University of Birmingham; and editor-in-chief of EA WorldView. He is a specialist in US and British foreign policy and international relations, especially the Middle East and Iran. Formerly he worked as a journalist in the US, writing for newspapers including the Guardian and The Independent and was an essayist for The New Statesman before he founded EA WorldView in November 2008.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Subscribe to our email list to receive a weekly selection of stories published by EA WorldView during the previous week.
Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress
