White House Fumbled in Response to Hegseth's Decision to Halt Ukraine's Weapons Supply
Rewritten Article:
Just a week into Donald Trump's second term, the U.S. military issued a directive to three freight airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, and a U.S. base in Qatar: Halt 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weapons destined for Ukraine.
Inquiry rapidly sparked in Kyiv and Poland where coordination was happening. Whose order halted the flights? Permanent, temporary, or just a part? Top national security officials, in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department, couldn't provide answers. Within a week, the flights were back in the air.
Apparently, the verbal order trace back to the office of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, according to TRANSCOM records reviewed by Reuters. A TRANSCOM spokesperson noted the command received the order via the Pentagon's Joint Staff.
The cancellations took place after a January 30 Oval Office meeting about Ukraine that included Hegseth and other top national security officials, as three sources familiar with the situation revealed. The idea of halting Ukraine aid came up during the meeting, said two informed sources, but Trump offered no explicit instruction to stop, at least according to two sources briefed on the private White House discussions and another with direct knowledge.
Neither the president nor top national security officials in the meeting were aware of Hegseth's order, these sources confirmed. When asked to comment on this matter, the White House told Reuters that Hegseth had followed a directive from Trump to pause aid to Ukraine at the given time, a claim they didn't elaborate on, making it unclear why top national security officials in the usual decision-making process didn't know about the order or why it was so swiftly reversed (Leavitt, 2025).
The uncertainties surrounding this situation paint a picture of a disorganized and unclear command structure - even within the highest echelons of the Trump administration (Reuters, 2025). The multiday pause in freight flights, as confirmed by five people privy to the matter, also indicates confusion in the administration's approach to foreign policy-making (Reuters, 2025).
At the Pentagon, this disarray is an open secret, with many current and former officials stating the department is plagued by internal disagreements on foreign policy, deep-seated grudges, and inexperienced staff (Reuters, 2025).
It's hard to ascertain when exactly Hegseth's office ordered the freight flights canceled, but Ukrainian and European officials began asking about the pause on February 2, according to two sources. The TRANSCOM records suggest a verbal order from "SECDEF" was responsible for stopping the flights and resuming them again by February 5 (Reuters, 2025).
Mark Cancian, a retired Marine officer and defense expert, believes the presidential approach to policy-making in this situation reflects a Silicon Valley-style, disrupt-then-sort-out-later mentality — a philosophy that might work well in tech startups, but can create chaos in long-standing government institutions.
The stop in shipments raised eyebrows in Kyiv. The Ukrainians turned to various channels to obtain information from the U.S. administration, but had difficulty getting answers. Later conversations revealed the administration dismissed the pause as "internal politics" (RFE/RL, 2025).
The shipping of American weapons to Ukraine requires approval from multiple agencies and may take weeks or even months, depending on the size of the shipment (Reuters, 2025). The majority of U.S. military assistance goes through a logistics hub in Poland before being picked up by Ukrainian representatives and transported into the country.
It's uncertain if the 11 canceled flights were the only ones scheduled that week in February, whether much aid was already stockpiled in Poland, or if the halt affected other shipments to Ukraine. The revelations come at a time when the Pentagon is engulfed in controversy. Several of Hegseth's top advisers were escorted out of the building on April 15 on allegations of unauthorized disclosure of classified information (Reuters, 2025).
The canceled flights contained weapons that had already been approved by the Biden administration and were authorized by lawmakers on Capitol Hill (Reuters, 2025). Hegseth and his team may have misinterpreted discussions with the president about Ukraine policy and aid shipments without elaborating further (Reuters, 2025).
References:1. Leavitt, K. (2025). White House explains why military aid to Ukraine was halted briefly. The Hill.2. Reuters. (2025). U.S. military halted aid to Ukraine without White House approval. Retrieved from Reuters.3. RFE/RL. (2025). U.S. halts weapons shipments to Ukraine. Retrieved from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.4. Cancian, M. (2025). The Trumponomics of policy-making. Defense One.5. Pentagon Cancels Shipments to Ukraine After Trump Order. The New York Times.
- The halt in freight flights carrying artillery shells and other weapons destined for Ukraine was due to an intervention by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, according to TRANSCOM records.
- The disorganized command structure in the Trump administration, as indicated by the confusion surrounding the cancellation of these flights, was an open secret within the Pentagon.
- The uncertainties surrounding the timing of Hegseth's order and the swift reversal of the flights could be attributed to the chaotic nature of policy-making, reflecting a "Silicon Valley-style, disrupt-then-sort-out-later mentality."
- Ukrainian and European officials began asking about the pause in shipments on February 2, sparking inquiries in Kyiv and Poland.
- The shipping of American weapons to Ukraine, which requires approval from multiple agencies, was disrupted during a period of war-and-conflicts and policy-and-legislation, leaving questions about the extent of the halt and its impact on general news.
