WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is halting some shipments of weapons to Ukraine amid concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said Tuesday, a setback for the country as it tries to fend off escalating attacks from Russia.
Certain munitions were previously promised to Ukraine under the Biden administration to aid its defenses during the more than three-year-old war. The pause reflects a new set of priorities under President Donald Trump and came after Defense Department officials scrutinized current U.S. stockpiles and raised concerns.
“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned — just ask Iran.”
That was a reference to Trump recently ordering U.S. missile strikes against nuclear sites in Iran.
The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some weapons previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public.
The Defense Department did not provide details on what specific weapons were being held back.
“America’s military has never been more ready and more capable,” spokesman Sean Parnell said, adding that the major tax cut and spending package moving through Congress “ensures that our weapons and defense systems are modernized to protect against 21st century threats for generations to come."
The halt of some weapons from the U.S. is a blow to Ukraine as Russia has recently launched some of its biggest aerial attacks of the war, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts championed by Trump. Talks between the sides have ground to a halt.
The U.S. stoppage was first reported by Politico.
To date, the U.S. has provided Ukraine more than $66 billion worth of weapons and military assistance since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
Over the course of the war, the U.S. has routinely pressed for allies to provide air defense systems to Ukraine. But many are reluctant to give up the high-tech systems, particularly countries in Eastern Europe that also feel threatened by Russia.
Elbridge Colby, the Defense Department undersecretary for policy, said officials continue “to provide the president with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end.”
“At the same time, the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities,” Colby said in a statement.
Trump met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit last week and had left open the possibility of sending Kyiv more U.S.-made Patriot air defense missile systems, acknowledging they would help the Ukrainian cause.
“They do want to have the antimissile missiles, OK, as they call them, the Patriots,” Trump said then. “And we’re going to see if we can make some available. We need them, too. We’re supplying them to Israel, and they’re very effective, 100% effective. Hard to believe how effective. They do want that more than any other thing.”
Those comments hinted at thinking about providing weapons to Ukraine that's begun to change across the administration in recent months.
In testimony before lawmakers in June, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he has moved quickly to quash wasteful programs and redirect funding to Trump’s top objectives.
Hegseth said a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine, which has been promoted for months by Trump, makes America look strong, even though Moscow is the aggressor in the conflict. He also said the defense budget includes hard choices and “reflects the reality that Europe needs to step up more for the defense of its own continent. And President Trump deserves the credit for that.”
The defense secretary told lawmakers last month that some U.S. security spending for Ukraine was still in the pipeline, without providing details. But he said such assistance — which has been robust for the past two years — would be reduced.
“This administration takes a very different view of that conflict,” Hegseth said. “We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests.”
The change comes after Hegseth skipped a meeting last month of an international group to coordinate military aid to Ukraine that the U.S. created three years ago. Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, formed the group after Russia attacked Ukraine, and Hegseth's absence was the first time the U.S. defense secretary wasn’t in attendance.
Under Austin’s leadership, the U.S. served as chair of the group, and he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended monthly meetings, which were both in person and by video.
Hegseth had previously stepped away from a leadership role of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group — turning that over to Germany and the United Kingdom — before abandoning the gathering altogether.
Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed to this report.
A fire is seen after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, June 23, 2025. (AP Photo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers a speech at the Council of Europe after signing the legal instruments necessary to launch the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sluggish December hiring concluded a year of weak employment gains that have frustrated job seekers even though layoffs and unemployment have remained low.
Employers added just 50,000 jobs last month, nearly unchanged from a downwardly revised figure of 56,000 in November, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate slipped to 4.4%, its first decline since June, from 4.5% in November, a figure also revised lower.
The data suggests that businesses are reluctant to add workers even as economic growth has picked up. Many companies hired aggressively after the pandemic and no longer need to fill more jobs. Others have held back due to widespread uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s shifting tariff policies, elevated inflation, and the spread of artificial intelligence, which could alter or even replace some jobs.
Still, economists were encouraged by the drop in the unemployment rate, which had risen in the previous four straight reports. It had also alarmed officials at the Federal Reserve, prompting three cuts to the central bank's key interest rate last year. The decline lowered the odds of another rate reduction in January, economists said.
“The labor market looks to have stabilized, but at a slower pace of employment growth,” Blerina Uruci, chief economist at T. Rowe Price, said. There is no urgency for the Fed to cut rates further, for now."
Some Federal Reserve officials are concerned that inflation remains above their target of 2% annual growth, and hasn't improved since 2024. They support keeping rates where they are to combat inflation. Others, however, are more worried that hiring has nearly ground to a halt and have supported lowering borrowing costs to spur spending and growth.
November's job gain was revised slightly lower, from 64,000 to 56,000, while October's now shows a much steeper drop, with a loss of 173,000 positions, down from previous estimates of a 105,000 decline. The government revises the jobs figures as it receives more survey responses from businesses.
The economy has now lost an average of 22,000 jobs a month in the past three months, the government said. A year ago, in December 2024, it had gained 209,000 a month. Most of those losses reflect the purge of government workers by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Nearly all the jobs added in December were in the health care and restaurant and hotel industries. Health care added 38,500 jobs, while restaurants and hotels gained 47,000. Governments — mostly at the state and local level — added 13,000.
Manufacturing, construction and retail companies all shed jobs. Retailers cut 25,000 positions, a sign that holiday hiring has been weaker than previous years. Manufacturers have shed jobs every month since April, when Trump announced sweeping tariffs intended to boost manufacturing.
Wall Street and Washington are looking closely at Friday's report as it's the first clean reading on the labor market in three months. The government didn’t issue a report in October because of the six-week government shutdown, and November’s data was distorted by the closure, which lasted until Nov. 12.
The hiring slowdown reflects more than just a reluctance by companies to add jobs. With an aging population and a sharp drop in immigration, the economy doesn't need to create as many jobs as it has in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady. As a result, a gain of 50,000 jobs is not as clear a sign of weakness as it would have been in previous years.
And layoffs are still low, a sign firms aren't rapidly cutting jobs, as typically happens in a recession. The “low-hire, low-fire” job market does mean current workers have some job security, though those without jobs can have a tougher time.
Ernesto Castro, 44, has applied for hundreds of jobs since leaving his last in May. Yet the Los Angeles resident has gotten just three initial interviews, and only one follow-up, after which he heard nothing.
With nearly a decade of experience providing customer support for software companies, Castro expected to find a new job pretty quickly as he did in 2024.
“I should be in a good position,” Castro said. “It’s been awful.”
He worries that more companies are turning to artificial intelligence to help clients learn to use new software. He hears ads from tech companies that urge companies to slash workers that provide the kind of services he has in his previous jobs. His contacts in the industry say that employees are increasingly reluctant to switch jobs amid all the uncertainty, which leaves fewer open jobs for others.
He is now looking into starting his own software company, and is also exploring project management roles.
December’s report caps a year of sluggish hiring, particularly after April's “liberation day” tariff announcement by Trump. The economy generated an average of 111,000 jobs a month in the first three months of 2025. But that pace dropped to just 11,000 in the three months ended in August, before rebounding slightly to 22,000 in November.
Last year, the economy gained just 584,000 jobs, sharply lower than that more than 2 million added in 2024. It's the smallest annual gain since the COVID-19 pandemic decimated the job market in 2020.
Subdued hiring underscores a key conundrum surrounding the economy as it enters 2026: Growth has picked up to healthy levels, yet hiring has weakened noticeably and the unemployment rate has increased in the last four jobs reports.
Most economists expect hiring will accelerate this year as growth remains solid, and Trump's tax cut legislation is expected to produce large tax refunds this spring. Yet economists acknowledge there are other possibilities: Weak job gains could drag down future growth. Or the economy could keep expanding at a healthy clip, while automation and the spread of artificial intelligence reduces the need for more jobs.
Productivity, or output per hour worked, a measure of worker efficiency, has improved in the past three years and jumped nearly 5% in the July-September quarter. That means companies can produce more without adding jobs. Over time, it should also boost worker pay.
Even with such sluggish job gains, the economy has continued to expand, with growth reaching a 4.3% annual rate in last year's July-September quarter, the best in two years. Strong consumer spending helped drive the gain. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta forecasts that growth could slow to a still-solid 2.7% in the final three months of last year.
FILE - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Northbrook, Ill., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
