Time is not on Ukraine’s side, West must act — politician

Ukraine's former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk stated this.

"I do not see the possibility of 100% compensation by our European partners for the losses from the U.S. refusing to provide Ukraine with military and security assistance. We can talk about plan "B", about a "coalition of the willing," and many other things—talks do not increase either the power or armament of the Ukrainian army, or the range of missiles supplied to Ukraine, or the number of these missiles," he noted.

Yatsenyuk added that talks do not bring anything if they are not backed up by actions.

"Tomorrow, at the joint panel of the Brussels Forum of the German Marshall Fund, we will speak with the U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg. I want to express my opinion on how I see the role and place of our bilateral relations and the American administration. Can the American administration continue to provide assistance to Ukraine? Of course, it can—it is only a matter of political will. And even Trump's promises during and after the election campaign that he will no longer write a "blank check" can be resolved very simply, because Ukraine signed the famous agreement on minerals, and there is a very clear mechanism there for how the Americans can actually supply weapons to Ukraine on a credit basis," the former prime minister said.

He also said that yesterday he had a meeting with European parliamentarians—they say that they are ready to allocate money for the purchase of American weapons.

"To sum up, what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said is nothing new. Its president has never clearly stated that he will continue to provide assistance to Ukraine. We have already been in a situation where the U.S. turned off the exchange of intelligence—it's good that they turned it back on. We were in a situation of incredibly tense relations between Zelenskyy and Trump, and what happened in the Vatican at least reduced the tension, and here we must give credit to Zelenskyy; it was not easy for him," Yatsenyuk added.

In his opinion, what is important is what the EU is doing now regarding sanctions.

"The 18th package should not be overestimated; it will not dramatically change the whole picture. But the presence of this package will encourage the U.S. to take some action. Such encouragement may occur during the G7 summit in Canada, so the Europeans must already come with something, to say: "Mr. President, we have a package—what is your package?" It is a very difficult job; the only problem is that time is not on our side, and we need to accelerate as much as possible. This should be done in small steps, including publicly. Publicly encourage our partners in the West to act, not talk," he concluded.

• Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said that the United States will reduce the budget for financing military assistance to Ukraine, since the administration of President Donald Trump "has a different view of this conflict."