U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a delay in defense assistance to Ukraine shortly before his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July, which is likely to raise questions about the motivation for his decision, The Washington Post has reported, citing senior administration officials.
"President Trump told his acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, to hold back almost $400 million in military aid for Ukraine at least a week before a phone call in which Trump is said to have pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate the son of former vice president Joe Biden," the article reads.
According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Office of Management and Budget relayed Trump's order to the State Department and the Pentagon during an interagency meeting in mid-July (the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents had a phone call on July 25).
They explained that the president had "concerns" and wanted to analyze whether the money needed to be spent.
Administration officials were instructed to tell lawmakers that the delays were part of an "interagency process" but to give them no additional information — a pattern that continued for nearly two months, until the White House released the funds on the night of September 11.
"Trump's order to withhold aid to Ukraine a week before his July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky is likely to raise questions about the motivation for his decision and fuel suspicions on Capitol Hill that Trump sought to leverage congressionally approved aid to damage a political rival," the report reads.
The Ukrainian and U.S. presidents are expected to meet in New York on Wednesday, September 25, on the sidelines of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.