US Officials Deliver Hard Line in Geneva as Ukraine Risks Losing Key Aid

The administration of US President Donald Trump is seriously considering suspending military aid to Ukraine, The Washington Post reports citing American officials.

Photo: pxhere.com by Неизвестен, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Signing a document

Washington Delivers a Warning in Geneva

According to the newspaper, White House officials outlined this possibility to Ukraine during negotiations in Geneva on November 23. A source told The Washington Post that a delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio “made it clear” that Washington intends to finalize the peace plan drafted by US Special Representative Steve Witkoff by November 27.

The warning followed earlier discussions. On November 19, during a visit to Kyiv, a delegation of American military officials headed by US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll voiced the idea of halting military support. Senior Ukrainian officials described the delegation’s tone as harsh, though Washington later softened its position.

“They arrived with an ultimatum: if you do not support this plan by November 27, you will have to rely on the Europeans alone. We will cut off everything — weapons supplies, intelligence sharing, everything,"  
an anonymous senior Ukrainian official told RBC-Ukraine.

US Military Officials Deliver Grim Assessments

According to the outlet, Driscoll’s delegation delivered a critical assessment of the front-line situation and the advance of Russia’s Armed Forces. In their view, Ukraine risks losing the entire Donbas region within a year.

“They believe the coming months will be critical for us. And if they cut everything off, it may happen even sooner," an anonymous senior Ukrainian official said.

On November 22, The Guardian identified Driscoll — a friend and former classmate of US Vice President J. D. Vance — as Trump’s new special representative for Ukraine. The newspaper noted, however, that no official confirmation of his appointment exists, and the post formally remains held by Keith Kellogg .

What Kyiv Stands to Lose

A Ukrainian official told ABC that US assistance to Ukraine currently includes several key components:

• deliveries of air-defense systems, including components and missiles for Patriot batteries;
• intelligence-sharing arrangements;
• additional commitments linked to weapons supplies and US support, including arms sales to NATO countries for subsequent transfers to Ukraine.

The Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman also highlighted the critical role of US intelligence in Ukrainian military planning and in organizing strikes on Russian territory. He wrote that senior US officers privately discuss Ukraine’s severe shortage of personnel and rising desertion rates. Rachman noted that US military assistance already shrank compared to levels under former US President Joe Biden.

Supporters of the Witkoff Plan Push for Realism

Figures close to the Trump administration who support Steve Witkoff’s peace plan point to the deteriorating situation on the battlefield and Washington’s new security commitments. Dan Caldwell, a former US Department of Defense official responsible for Ukraine, called expectations of sanctions pressure unrealistic and urged Kyiv to consider “some realistic proposals” advanced by US officials.

"People trying to tear this agreement down just want the war to continue,” said Dan Caldwell, a former Pentagon official who worked on Ukraine issues under the Trump administration. "There is this persistent delusion that the United States has a massive stockpile of munitions that we can dump in Ukraine, that there’s a magic sanctions package that will force the Russians to end the war and that Ukraine has the capacity to continue this war until they achieve total victory," Caldwell said.