Lawmakers applaud resumption of US military aid to Ukraine

Briana Reilly, CQ-Roll Call on Jul 8, 2025

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Defense-minded lawmakers from both parties on Tuesday welcomed the news that the U.S. is resuming the delivery of military aid to Ukraine, following a pause that dismayed Kyiv and its Hill advocates alike.

The reactions came a day after President Donald Trump announced at the White House that the United States would send more “defensive weapons primarily” to the war-torn country, saying Ukraine has “to be able to defend themselves” from Russia’s ongoing onslaught.

The defense equipment had been caught up in what the Pentagon previously framed as “a capability review” undertaken “to ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense priorities,” in the words of Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

Parnell declined to tell reporters during a briefing last week which munitions were affected, when the review began and who in the Defense Department was involved in that work. It remains unclear which specific systems the U.S. plans to transfer to Kyiv now that the hold is lifted.

Still, the reversal drew bipartisan praise.

Senate Foreign Relations ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., argued that the continuance of security assistance to Ukraine is “absolutely vital” to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin “to the negotiating table.”

House Armed Services Chair Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., emphasized that “now is not the time” to halt defensive aid to Ukraine.

“Vladimir Putin has been given every opportunity to pursue a lasting peace,” Rogers said. “His refusal to do so, and his misjudgment of the president’s determination, is a serious mistake.”

Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., advised Trump to “reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons.”

“And he should disregard those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions production,” McConnell added.

Amid the pause in aid last week, Russia unleashed an hourslong air raid on Kyiv, including the largest drone attack of the war so far, following a phone conversation between Trump and Putin.

Referencing the episode, Shaheen in her statement argued that the pause “came with a tragic human cost, as dozens of Ukrainians were killed or wounded in some of the biggest air strikes of the war.”

While deliveries of defensive aid to Ukraine are set to resume, Parnell said in a statement Monday that the Pentagon’s plan for the president “to evaluate military shipments across the globe remains in effect and is integral to our America First defense priorities.”

More than 50 House lawmakers — led by Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., a member of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee — sought in a July 3 letter that was publicly released Tuesday to determine whether the U.S. paused munitions shipments to any other locations.

The missive also requested a classified briefing on the status of American’s munitions stockpiles and the associated review process that the Defense Department has undertaken of those stocks.

“While we appreciate the need to review our stockpiles, and in recognition that these stockpiles have shrunk in recent years as the United States justly supplied its allies across the globe to advance American interests, we believe the answer to depleted stocks is a laser focus on ramping up our own DIB,” wrote the lawmakers, referencing the defense industrial base.