Amna Nawaz:
Thank you, Nick.
For more on this now, we turn to retired Lieutenant General Doug Lute. He served in both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations on the National Security Council staff and was U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration.
General Lute, welcome back to the “News Hour.” Always great to see you.
You have heard now the White House says that the freeze on military aid to Ukraine stays in place until President Trump determines Ukraine has demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations. What’s your reaction to that?
Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute (RET.), Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO: Well, I think Nick covered the immediate impacts pretty well in his reporting.
We should remember, first of all, that this is not the only time that aid from the U.S. has been paused or suspended. Remember, we went through a six-month period last year where there was a cease in aid because of congressional debate and so forth.
The immediate impact will be on high-end air and missile defense systems that protect Ukrainian cities. And, as Nick reported, the Patriot missile system is probably first and foremost there. But, also, there’s very sensitive intelligence sharing that’s been going on, and intelligence gathered from very sensitive collection means, collection sources.
So it would be interesting to see if that sharing also ends. There are three things that will somewhat moderate or mitigate the impact of this U.S. pause. First of all, Ukraine has ramped up its own indigenous defense industrial base. They produced a million drones on their own last year, and drones now dominate the battlefield.
The Europeans can cover some of this gap as the U.S. departs. And then finally, it very much depends on the battlefield dynamic. Does the tempo of the war remain the same? Or is there a hope for a cease-fire, which would mean that the gap is less significant?
