Ukraine shocked over US military aid pause

Ukrainians have voiced their shock and dismay at the US pausing its military aid to the country — what one politician called a "dangerous" situation.

"We'll see very soon the serious consequences — dangerous consequences," Oleksandr Merezhko, who chairs the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told the BBC.

Merezhko said the pause could start having an impact on the ground as soon as "in the coming days".

Ukraine woke up to the news on Tuesday that the US was "pausing and reviewing" its military aid. A White House official told the BBC's US news partner, CBS, that its reason for doing so was to "ensure that it is contributing to a solution".

"The President has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well," the White House official added.

While US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have yet to comment, Ukraine's Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, said his country was still willing to cooperate with the US, and reiterated Kyiv's "gratefulness" to Washington for their support to date.

Some Ukrainian MPs, however, have come out to call the decision "disastrous".

"When we are in desperate need of American weaponry, of American support... [it] looks like siding with Russia" to end it now, Merezhko said.

"I'm appealing to Mr Trump not to play with these dangerous issues because we're talking about lives."

Merezhko said the decision also shone "a new light" on the Oval Office spat on Friday between Zelensky and the US president and vice-president, which Merezhko called "an attempt to find justification" to stop the military aid.

"It was a show, you know, deliberately played," he added.

US Vice-President JD Vance said he saw "big problems" with accusations that Trump was on Russian President Vladimir Putin's side, when asked during an interview on Monday.

Vance said people had to accept that Trump is "not just assuming that everything the Russians tell him is true".