Key Points and Summary – A major rift has emerged within the Pentagon over Ukraine policy, with Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby reportedly being the driving force behind the recent, abrupt halt in arms shipments to Kyiv.
-This decision, which has “blindsided” the White House and angered allies, is seen as part of Colby’s “China-first” worldview, which dismisses the strategic importance of European security.
-The move, coming just as Russia launched its largest air assault of the war, is viewed by critics as a self-defeating policy that undermines US credibility and emboldens both Moscow and Beijing.
Why Was Ukraine’s Aid Cut? What We Think We Know
On the night of 8 July, Russia bombarded several Ukrainian cities with the most significant number of attack drones and missiles to date.
Meanwhile, the US administration was debating who knew what about the Pentagon’s decision to halt all deliveries of military aid to Kyiv abruptly.
On Wednesday morning, the next day, Ukraine’s Air Force (PSU) reported that Russia had launched over 740 attack drones and different types of missiles the previous night.
Some of the most extensive damage was reported in the city of Lutsk in western Ukraine, which is only 100 kilometers from the Polish border. That attack even prompted Polish and Allied aircraft to scramble to secure Poland’s airspace.
The PSU took down most of the Iranian-designed drones and the Russian-made Iskander ballistic missiles launched at its territory.
But all six of Russia’s newest aeroballistic Kinzhal air-launched missiles made it past Ukraine’s air defenses.
There was no way to stop the Kinzhals because of the lack of enough US-made Patriot missile interceptors.
Ukraine is increasingly facing a shortage of the missiles that are fired from the Patriot batteries – the ones it needs to intercept the Kinzhals.
“Only Patriots can shoot down” Kinzhals, said Yurii Ignat, a Ukrainian air force spokesperson.
The lack of enough Patriots has been caused not just by Russia trying to “flood the zone” by increasing the number of missiles it has been firing against Ukraine this summer.
But the other factor making matters worse was the Pentagon’s decision last week to halt all shipments of a long list of munitions – including several air defense missiles – to Kyiv.
Who Convinced the Secretary
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had reportedly authorized the abrupt cut-off in these shipments, but had done so without informing the White House.
When questions were asked as to the decision-making process involved, Politico reported on Wednesday their sources revealed the decision was made on a recommendation from Elbridge Colby, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (OUSD-P).
If this scenario had been a one-off occurrence, it could have been chalked up to a breakdown in communications between the Pentagon and the White House, or confusion as to what level of authorization exists to countermand an existing commitment to transfer foreign military aid to an ally.
But based on past incidents and a plethora of sources willing to speak about their disagreements with Colby on a number of foreign policy decisions, his finding a way to try and weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Russia seems almost foreordained.
German soldiers assigned to Surface Air and Missile Defense Wing 1 fire the Patriot weapons system at the NATO Missile Firing Installation (NAMFI) during Artemis Strike Nov. 7 in Chania, Greece. Artemis Strike is a German-led multinational air defense exercise. German soldiers Over 200 U.S. soldiers and approximately 650 German airmen will be participating in the realistic training within a combined construct, exercise the rigors associated with force projection and educate operators on their air missile defense systems. (Photo By Officer Candidate Sebastian Apel, Air Defence Missile Group 24)
Seven sources who spoke with Politico on condition of anonymity have described the Pentagon official as someone who has on multiple occasions taken actions that “blindsided parts of the White House and have caused no end of disagreements and damage to relations with foreign allies.”
The AUKUS Challenge
One example was his apparent unilateral decision – a move that caught State Department and National Security Council members off-guard – when in June he decided to review the AUKUS problem.
This is a tri-nation program in which the US and the UK will provide Australia with nuclear-powered but conventionally-armed submarines, and is considered a critical effort in outmaneuvering China’s naval power.
“He is ******* off just about everyone I know inside the administration,” said one of the sources who was interviewed for the Politico story. “They all view him as the guy who’s going to make the US do less in the world in general.”
No Use For Europeans
“He has basically decided that he’s going to be the intellectual driving force behind a kind of neo-isolationism that believes that the United States should act more alone, that allies and friends are kind of encumbering,” said another person close to the Trump administration and who also contributed to the Politico story.
Colby has been asked by more than one outlet, but so far has not responded to requests for comment.
In the absence of any explanation from the DoD Undersecretary, there are reports of other incidents that present a pattern that seems to telegraph an outlook that sees little use for Washington’s European allies.
Another interaction that fits the pattern is when the UK defense delegation visited the Pentagon in June and discussed their decision to send an aircraft carrier to Asia as part of a routine deployment.
Colby is reported to have asked the senior-level UK group “is it too late to call it back? Because we don’t want you there” – an account that the author of the story says was confirmed by two sources.
The British team sitting on the other side of the table “were just shocked,” the report reads.
“He was basically saying, ‘You have no business being in the Indo-Pacific.’”
The China Obsession?
A long-time Russian political and military affairs expert who taught at some of the US military’s top educational institutions explained to National Security Journal that suddenly leaving the Ukrainians’ defenseless against Russia’s number one air-launched missile threat “was not just Colby trying to curry favor with a White House that has shown a healthy disdain for the country and for its president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.”
“The guy just has no use for Europe and Europeans. He has been in that mindset for years and to him the only conflict that matters is the one between Washington and Beijing,” he explained. “This is the line of reasoning that he and others have that says we should just sacrifice Ukraine – because they cannot win and we need everything we have for the big fight with China.”
“For some reason he and others think if we let Russia win in Ukraine it will not embolden Beijing to just invade Taiwan whenever they decide they are ready.”
Those who have a far more substantive background on the PRC disagree. To quote the famous Historian Timothy Snyder, “lots of people say they are tough on China. Supporting Ukraine is the one easy and safe way to deter China. Those who don’t support Ukraine can’t be taken seriously on China.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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Swamplaw Yankee
July 14, 2025 at 5:03 am
“World view”! “Mind Set” ! “Line of reasoning” !
Where do these buffoons arise out of? A Shakespeare play?
The White House “blindsided”? What is going on in this inner beltway? Who is writing the book as this weak minded moron show evolves?
Ukrainian Father’s are maimed and killed by orc muscovite pedophiles as the gossamer nebulous speculating inner beltway minds make intellectual balloon ascension into the stratosphere with zero geometric line of un-reasoning.
How does the MAGA POTUS Trump not perceive this so-evident feral riot in his brain cabal? Is he incapable of real gripping of these slimy thinkers? -30-