Republican lawmakers are starting to urge President Trump to reverse his decisions to pause U.S. military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine, warning that a prolonged stoppage of U.S. help for the war effort would have a seriously detrimental effect.

They say that Trump has the right to temporarily halt weapons shipments to Ukraine to assess the war, pressure NATO allies to step up their contributions and to create a window to negotiate a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine said on Tuesday it would do all it can to maintain its ties with the United States, after President Donald Trump paused military aid to Kyiv in the most dramatic step yet in his pivot towards closer ties with Russia.

Trump has upended U.S. policy on Ukraine and Russia, culminating in an explosive confrontation at the White House on Friday, when Trump upbraided President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for being insufficiently grateful for Washington's backing.

President Trump has ordered a pause on U.S. aid going to Ukraine in its war against Russia, a consequential move as he clashes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the path to ending the conflict.

“The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” a White House official said in a statement. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

President Donald Trump ordered a halt on all U.S. military aid to Ukraine after a contentious meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Senior U.S. officials speaking with outlets including the Associated Press and Bloomberg confirmed that the halt in aid would begin immediately. The official speaking with the former said that the U.S. was “pausing and reviewing” its aid to “ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Donald Trump has paused U.S. aid to Ukraine a few days after berating the war-torn country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for not being—in his view—sufficiently thankful for U.S. support.

“The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” a White House official said in a statement, according to The Hill. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Bloomberg News was the first to report on the sudden pause.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials negotiated all night into Friday morning in an attempt to conclude a minerals deal and halt the deterioration in relations, a U.S. official and a source with direct knowledge of the issue tell Axios.

Why it matters: The disagreement over minerals helped spark a wider crisis in relations this week. Now Trump administration officials and some in the Ukrainian government are pressing President Volodymyr Zelensky to make a deal.

Croatian President Zoran Milanović has recently been re-elected for a second term. In the second round of the presidential election he faced Dragan Primorac, backed by the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). Zoran Milanović, who has been president of Croatia since 2020, is supported by the opposition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced early this week that his government had received $3.9 billion from the United States in the form of "direct budgetary aid" - which are funds given from the US and disbursed directly to Kiev through the World Bank.

"This is the first tranche of direct budget support from the United States in 2024. In total, Ukraine will receive $7.8 billion in direct budgetary assistance from the United States this year, which will allow us to confidently pass this financial period," Shmyhal posted on Telegram.

 Germany plans to halve its military aid to Ukraine in 2025, to €4bn, despite concerns over continued US support, according to a draft budget seen by Reuters. Instead the German government hopes Ukraine will be able to meet the bulk of its military needs with $50bn in loans from proceeds of frozen Russian assets approved by the G7, and that funds earmarked for armaments will not be fully used. “Ukraine’s financing is secured for the foreseeable future thanks to European instruments and the G7 loans,” the German finance minister, Christian Lindner, said on Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden has pledged to provide Ukraine with five new strategic air defence systems to counter relentless Russian attacks, in a forceful speech welcoming Nato leaders to Washington DC.

In brief but strongly delivered remarks at the opening of the summit, the president declared the military alliance "more powerful than ever" as it faced a "pivotal moment" in the war between Russia and Ukraine.