THEY'VE GIVEN NOTHING TO US
Quick question for you. If an ally already paid for the missiles, what exactly is Washington waiting for? Ukraine has been asking that all week, and on Monday the president answered with a sentence that should come with a rewind button. Take the blue pill with me this morning. Bring your 2019 memory.
“They’ve given nothing to us”
The Washington Post reported Monday evening that the Trump administration has not approved the transfer of Patriot interceptor missiles to Ukraine. At least some of those transfers come from countries friendly to Ukraine, and because the missiles are American made, the handoff needs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sign-off. Officials told the Post that Hegseth has not formally rejected the transfers. He also has not completed the steps to approve them.
How low is Kyiv? A Ukrainian official told the Post that “only a couple” of interceptors remain in the stockpile. In a Monday Telegram post, Zelensky said Russia had launched 16 ballistic missiles at Ukraine in waves overnight. “When deliveries of missiles for Ukraine’s air defense are blocked, while Russia receives sanctions relief or delays,” he wrote on Telegram, “this is, unfortunately, a denial of reality on the part of our partners.”
Asked at the White House on Monday whether the U.S. is still sharing intelligence, President Trump said: “We share intelligence. We share a lot. We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. You know what, we’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given nothing to us.” He added that “it’s time for somebody else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.”
THEY’VE GIVEN NOTHING TO US is a bold thing to say about a country trying to refill its air defense with missiles somebody else already bought.
A U.S. Army Patriot missile launcher at sunrise in Slovakia, July 2022. Ukraine relies on Patriot interceptors to stop Russian ballistic missiles. Credit: U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Emily Park, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The desk
The Kyiv Independent broke the story first. One Ukrainian official put it plainly: “Hegseth has the contracts for Patriot missiles on his desk. He is not signing off on them.” The official said the missiles had already been paid for by Ukraine’s allies. Kyiv’s suspicion, in the paper’s headline, is that the hold is there to pressure Kyiv.
Zelensky told Bloomberg, in remarks reported by the Kyiv Independent, that the U.S. approved only some of the missiles allies bought through NATO’s PURL program. “And this is not a technical issue,” he said. He put U.S. deliveries at 12 Patriot interceptors a month, roughly a quarter of the Biden-era number, and noted Ukraine now has to buy them.
Then he described the trade he offered: “My latest model was: We don’t target Russian diesel, you give us missiles for Patriot systems to protect our facilities. But they just want us to stop attacking diesel.”
That is the part to sit with. The Post reports Trump’s deal lifting sanctions on Russian diesel “has given Trump a direct stake in keeping Ukraine from hitting the Russian refineries.” We walked through that license in SANCTIONS BY THE TON and the refinery fight in THAT’S A DISGRACE. Earlier this month, in talks in Miami, Ukrainian officials rejected White House efforts to get them to stop hitting Russian energy targets, U.S. and Ukrainian officials told the Post. Now the missiles are stuck.
To be fair to the other side of the desk: a senior Pentagon official told the Post that the program through which NATO allies provide U.S.-built weapons to Ukraine “continues unaltered.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there has “been no pause” in intelligence sharing and blamed missed early warnings on a “software problem.” The Post also notes the U.S. war in Iran has put real pressure on the world’s Patriot stocks. A shortage is a reason. A shortage is not a reason to leave missiles allies already paid for sitting unsigned.
We have seen this movie
July 25, 2019. Zelensky tells Trump on the phone that Ukraine is “almost ready to buy more Javelins.” Trump’s next words, per the White House’s own call memorandum: “I would like you to do us a favor though.”
That summer, the administration held up Ukraine security aid Congress had already approved. The Government Accountability Office later ruled in decision B-331564 that OMB broke the Impoundment Control Act by withholding the money for a policy reason. GAO’s line: “Faithful execution of the law does not permit the President to substitute his own policy priorities for those that Congress has enacted into law.”
The House impeached Trump on abuse of power, 230-197, with zero Republican votes in favor. The Senate acquitted him 52-48 on that article in February 2020.
The mechanism is different this time. In 2019 it was money appropriated by Congress. In 2026 it is a signature on transfers that allies bought. The pattern looks familiar: Ukraine needs weapons, and the White House has a request on the side.
President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at their bilateral meeting in New York, Sept. 25, 2019, two months after the July 25 call. Credit: The White House, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The Republicans who noticed
This isn’t just Democrats complaining. Rep. Michael McCaul, the former Republican chair of House Foreign Affairs, joined members of both parties in a letter to the White House co-signed by 20 House colleagues: “The recent lifting of sanctions on Russian oil will only fuel the Kremlin’s violence and destruction.”
Sen. Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of Senate Armed Services, met Zelensky in Kyiv and wrote that Zelensky would stop hitting Russian refineries if Russia stopped hitting Ukraine’s infrastructure. “President Trump can lower prices at the pump today by simply agreeing to this deal!” Then, in all caps, the way we write headlines around here: “MR. PRESIDENT, PLEASE TAKE THIS WIN!”
The Post also reports that on Friday, Trump waived sanctions established under a bipartisan bill passed in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the GOP’s firmest Ukraine backers. Graham’s own record is on our Lindsey Graham Money Trail.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “MR. PRESIDENT, PLEASE TAKE THIS WIN!” Credit: U.S. Senate Photo Studio, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
The blue costume: the slow walk was bipartisan
Before Democrats print the 2019 flashback on a T-shirt: the slow walk on Ukraine’s weapons was bipartisan. As CNN reported in November 2024, “The US refused to even provide ATACMS to Ukraine for the first two years of the war.” The Biden White House kept relenting on what CNN called “ostensibly rigid policies,” including on Patriot missiles, Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets, citing fears of escalation.
Fear of escalation is a better reason than a diesel deal. It was still a delay, and Ukrainians paid for that one too. You don’t get to call slow-walking a scandal only when the other guy’s name is on the desk.
Both costumes
The boring standard: weapons that allies bought, for a country under fire, don’t get held for a side deal. Not in 2019, not in 2026, not under any party. If you were outraged by the favor in 2019, you should be outraged by the desk in 2026. If you shrugged then, at least be consistent and stop pretending this is about price at the pump.
Want to know who funds the people on both sides of this fight? Start with the Donald Trump Money Trail, then check your own state on our Money Map and electoral map.
Receipts
- The Washington Post (Michael Birnbaum, Francesca Ebel, John Hudson), Oct. 19, 2026. Patriot transfers not approved; Hegseth sign-off; “only a couple”; 16 ballistic missiles; Zelensky Telegram; Trump “They’ve given nothing to us”; Rubio “been no pause”; Pentagon “continues unaltered”; Iran war strain; diesel stake; Graham sanctions waiver; McCaul letter; Wicker statement.
Kyiv Independent (Tim Zadorozhnyy, Jimmy Rushton), Oct. 19, 2026. “On his desk”; missiles paid for by allies; PURL; Kyiv’s suspicion of pressure. * Kyiv Independent (Tamara Nowakowsky), Oct. 19, 2026. Zelensky to Bloomberg: “not a technical issue”; 12 a month, about a quarter of the Biden-era number; the diesel-for-Patriots offer. * Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, July 25, 2019. Javelins; “do us a favor though.” * GAO decision B-331564, Jan. 16, 2020. OMB violated the Impoundment Control Act withholding Ukraine security assistance. * House Roll Call 695, Dec. 18, 2019. Article I adopted 230-197; Republicans 0 yes. * Senate Roll Call Vote 33, Feb. 5, 2020. Article I: guilty 48, not guilty 52. * CNN, Nov. 17, 2024. ATACMS refused for two years; Patriots, Abrams and F-16 reversals; escalation concerns. * Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: THAT’S A DISGRACE; SANCTIONS BY THE TON; Don’t hit diesel. Reader tools: Donald Trump Money Trail; Lindsey Graham Money Trail; Money Map and electoral map.
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Originally published on Substack.
