The Pentagon’s top policy official is warning that future military support for Ukraine cannot depend on the United States, sharpening pressure on European allies to take the lead.
In remarks delivered at this week’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Berlin and published on X on Thursday evening, Elbridge Colby said Washington’s support had relied heavily on “drawing down finite U.S. stockpiles,” an approach he signaled is no longer sustainable.
“Europe must accelerate its assumption of primary responsibility for the conventional defense of the continent,” Colby said. “This is not a matter of choice, but of strategic necessity.”
He added that continued assistance to Kyiv “must not rely on significant U.S. contributions,” urging allies to step up funding and production instead.
Under Donald Trump, new U.S. military aid to Ukraine has fallen to almost nothing. However, Washington is willing to sell weapons to Kyiv financed by other allies under the NATO-led Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List program, which gathered €3.7 billion last year for arms purchases.
U.S. military help to Ukraine fell by 99 percent in 2025, said the Kiel Support Tracker which monitors aid to Kyiv. “At the same time, Europe sharply increased its aid allocations, by 59 percent for financial and humanitarian aid and by 67 percent for military aid compared to the 2022–24 average. As a result, total aid in 2025 remained close to previous years,” it said.
This week, Vice President JD Vance said he was proud of the U.S. halting military aid to Ukraine.
“It’s one of the things I’m proudest that we’ve done in this administration is we’ve told Europe that if you want to buy weapons, you can, but the United States is not buying weapons and sending them to Ukraine anymore,” he said at a Turning Point USA event.
Despite switching to selling weapons, the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf are also under strain thanks to the war against Iran launched by Trump and Israel, with calls to focus on rebuilding stocks of air defense missiles that Kyiv also wants.
Colby pointed to the need to prioritize “the most consequential threats to Americans,” underscoring a broader rebalancing already underway.
The message came as European allies unveiled a fresh wave of support for Ukraine around the Berlin meeting, with a focus on drones, air defense and long-range strike capabilities.
Germany announced it would finance additional Patriot air defense missiles — to be produced domestically — as well as IRIS-T air defense systems and funding for long-range drones built in Ukraine.
The United Kingdom pledged 120,000 drones as part of its annual military support package, while the Netherlands earmarked hundreds of millions of euros for drone capabilities. Belgium and Spain also committed new funding, targeting air defense, artillery and fighter jet support.
The announcements highlight both momentum and limits. While European contributions are ramping up, Ukraine continues to face acute shortages in air defense systems to knock down Russian ballistic missiles, with production capacity struggling to keep pace with demand.
Colby emphasized that closing that gap will require more effort. “Europe must put the defense of the continent and, by extension, its military support for Ukraine on a truly sustainable footing,” he said, calling for a stronger defense industrial base.
