PNN – Roughly a week into Donald Trump’s second term, the US military ordered three cargo airlines operating out of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and a US base in Qatar to stop 11 flights carrying artillery shells and other weapons bound for Ukraine.Â
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Following this action, within hours, numerous questions reached Washington from Ukrainians in Kiev and Polish officials, where the shipments were coordinated. Who ordered the US Transportation Command, known as TRANSCOM, to halt the flights? Was this a permanent halt to all aid? Or were only some of them stopped? Senior national security officials at the White House, Pentagon, and State Department failed to provide an answer. Within a week, flights were back on the road.
According to Transcom records reviewed by Reuters, the verbal order came from the office of US Defense Secretary Pete Hexath.
Reuters, citing three informed sources, wrote: The aid cuts came after Trump wrapped up a meeting on Ukraine with Hexath and other top national security officials in the White House on Jan. 30. The idea of ​​withholding aid to Ukraine was raised during the meeting, but the president did not issue any orders to withhold aid to Kiev, two people familiar with the meeting said.
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The president, as well as other senior national security officials present at the meeting, were unaware of Hexath’s order, according to two sources familiar with the private White House discussions and another source with direct knowledge of the matter.
The White House, in response to a request for comment on the report, told Reuters that Hexath had followed Trump’s order to withhold aid to Ukraine, which it said was the administration’s position at the time. The White House did not explain why senior national security officials were unaware of the order or why it was rescinded so quickly.
The flight cancellations cost Transcom $2.2 million, according to records reviewed by Reuters. Transcom said in response to a request for comment that the total cost was $1.6 million — 11 flights were canceled, but one of them had no cost.
The order to halt military aid, which was approved in the Biden administration, officially took effect a month later, on March 4, with a White House announcement.
The story of how the flights were canceled points to a sometimes chaotic policymaking process in the Trump administration and a command structure that is unclear even to senior members of the administration itself.
The multi-day suspension of flights, confirmed by five people familiar with the matter, also highlights the confusion in how the administration creates and implements national security policy. At the Pentagon, the chaos is an open secret, with many current and former officials saying the department is plagued by internal disagreements over foreign policy, deep-seated resentments and inexperienced staff.