Trump pauses military aid to Ukraine until Kyiv commits to peace talks with Russia – Europe live | Ukraine

Hungary’s government has offered support to the Donald Trump administration’s decision to suspend military aid to Ukraine as the country defends itself against Russia’s invasion and illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.

A spokesperson for Viktor Orbán’s government said “The US president and the Hungarian government share the same stance: instead of continuing weapons shipments and the war, a ceasefire and peace talks are needed as soon as possible.”

Reuters is now carrying a fuller quote from Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, who told the news agency that the Trump administration move to suspend military aid to Ukraine resembled the appeasement of Adolf Hitler with the Munich agreement of 1938.

The senior Ukrainian lawmaker said:

To stop aid now means to help Putin. On the surface, this looks really bad. It looks like [Donald Trump] is pushing us towards capitulation, (accepting) Russia’s demands. The main thing is that this a psychological blow, a political blow upon Ukraine, it doesn’t help our spirit.

This is worse than Munich, because at least there they didn’t try to paint Czechoslovakia as the aggressor, but here they try to accuse the victim of aggression – it is extremely dangerous.

On 30 September 1938, Germany, Britain, France and Italy reached a settlement that permitted Nazi Germany’s annexation of the Sudetenland in what was then western Czechoslovakia.

A minister in the UK government has said that diplomacy cannot be done “over the airwaves” and that he did not think the UK government could act as an honest broker if it was providing a running commentary on every “twist and turn”.

He added that US military spending was a matter for the US government.

PA Media quotes Housing minister Alex Norris, speaking in the UK on Times Radio, saying:

We’re absolutely committed to securing a lasting peace in Ukraine. We’re engaging with our allies in support of that goal.

We’ve made significant commitments to Ukraine, that’s what we’ll continue to do, all in pursuit of a lasting peace, which will be achieved through putting Ukraine in a strong position.

US military spending is a decision for the United States. All of us, I think, are committed to securing that lasting peace.

We’re honest brokers in this process, we’re bringing together partners to get what we think is the goal that certainly we want as the UK, but I think we want globally as well. I don’t think we can be that honest broker if we provide a running commentary on every twist and turn. You know, I don’t think diplomacy can be done over the airwaves, so I’ve no intention of doing that.

Asked about how Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy should react to the apparent pressure being put on him to apologise to US president Donald Trump in public, Norris said “I don’t think it’s for me to try and police [Zelenskyy’s] words or tell him what you ought to say.”

Amid the diplomatic flurry of the last few days, the war continues. Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday it shot down 65 out of 99 drones launched by Russia overnight. Energy firm DTEK said on Tuesday morning it had restored supplies to 7,000 families in the Odesa region after Russian forces damaged an energy facility there on Monday.

A minister in the French government has said that the US decision to pause military aid to Ukraine makes peace “more distant”.

Benjamin Haddad, the junior minister for Europe, is quoted by Reuters saying “Fundamentally, if you want peace, does a decision to suspend arms to Ukraine reinforce peace or does it make it more distant? It makes it more distant, because it only strengthens the hand of the aggressor on the ground, which is Russia”. Haddad was speaking to France 2.

In more European reaction to the decision from the Trump administration, Poland’s deputy defence minister Cezary Tomczyk has described the move as “bad news”, while Reuters reports that the Ukrainian parliamentary foreign affairs committee chair has told it that it looks like Donald Trump is pushing Ukraine towards capitulation.

The suspension affects deliveries of ammunition, vehicles, and other equipment including shipments agreed to when Joe Biden was president.

The rift between Washington and Kyiv has deepened after President Donald Trump paused US assistance to Ukraine as he seeks to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage in peace talks with Russia.

The move comes just days after a disastrous Oval Office meeting in which Trump and vice-president JD Vance tore into Zelenskyy for what they perceived as insufficient gratitude for the more than $180bn in military aid the US has sent to Kyiv since Russia invaded three years ago.

A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal and wants Zelenskyy “committed” to that goal, AP reported. The official added that the US was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the assistance.

The order will remain in effect until Trump determines that Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia, the official said.

Earlier on Monday Trump had expressed fresh outrage at Zelenskyy for saying that the end of the war could be “very, very far away”.

In a post to social media on Monday, the US president posted a link to an Associated Press story outlining Zelenskyy’s comments and said: “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!

“It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the US. Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”

In other developments:

• Russian forces are repeatedly trying to seize a foothold across Ukraine’s Dnipro River, dispatching troops on high-casualty missions to gain territory for future peace negotiations, according to the Ukrainian governor of Kherson region. Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian forces were trying to cross in four locations to justify their claim to the whole oblast, one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow says it wants to incorporate

• US vice-president JD Vance said that the best way to protect Ukraine from another Russian invasion is to guarantee the US has a financial interest in Ukraine’s future. “If you want real security guarantees, if you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” Vance said in the interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity which aired Monday night

• Tensions have surfaced between France and the UK over whether $350bn of frozen Russian assets can be seized and then offered to the US to buy defence equipment, binding America closer to the defence of Europe

• Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says his government will consider any proposal to send troops to Ukraine as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, as Europe considers a “coalition of the willing” to enforce any peace deal

• On Monday a car rammed into crowds in the centre of the German city of Mannheim, killing two people and injuring several others, in what police described as a deliberate attack

• Pope Francis, who has been in hospital with pneumonia for more than two weeks, suffered two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, the Vatican said. The pontiff, 88, had returned to a stable condition during the weekend after a breathing crisis that caused him to vomit on Friday

It is Martin Belam with you today. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.