JULY 3, 2025 – Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with nearly $66 billion in security assistance. Much of that assistance involved American military hardware and munitions pulled from U.S. inventory as part of presidential drawdown authority.
Now, some assistance provided to Ukraine — as well as assistance to other nations — is on pause as the Defense Department reviews its own capabilities to ensure when it opts to provide aid to other nations, it never shortchanges itself in the process, said Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell during a briefing today at the Pentagon.
“This capability review … is being conducted to ensure U.S. military aid aligns with our defense priorities,” he said. “We see this as a common-sense, pragmatic step towards having a framework to evaluate what munitions are sent and where.”
The evaluation, Parnell said, will better help the president and defense secretary make decisions about how and when military aid is provided.
“What we’ve done here at the Department of Defense is create a framework to analyze what munitions we’re sending [and] where,” Parnell explained. “Ultimately, our job here at the Department of Defense is to pursue the president’s ‘America First’ agenda and make sure that we achieve peace through strength throughout the world.”
While Parnell said the department will not provide updates regarding quantities or types of munitions provided to Ukraine, or timelines associated with that materiel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continues to make recommendations to President Donald J. Trump on military assistance to Ukraine.
During the capability review, Parnell said, the U.S. military retains its ability to defend the nation.
“We want to be very clear about this last point,” he said. “Let it be known that our military has everything that it needs to conduct any mission, anywhere, anytime, all around the world. We have the most lethal fighting force in the world.”
Proof of that, Parnell said, was last month’s Operation Midnight Hammer, during which the U.S. used massive ordnance penetrators to destroy multiple Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Iran is much further away today from a nuclear weapon than they were before the president took bold action to fulfill his promise to the American people, and that promise was Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
During the operation, June 21, 2025, at 6:45 p.m., which was June 22, at 2:15 a.m. in Iran, U.S. B-2 Spirit bombers out of Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, dropped 14 GBU-57 bombs onto three locations in Iran, including at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
“Our assessment of the battle damage … remains unchanged,” Parnell said. “We believe, and certainly all of the intelligence [reports] that we’ve seen have led us to believe that … those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated.”
Parnell noted that intelligence assessments from allies around the world also reflect the U.S. assessment.
“They share our sentiments about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear program,” he said, adding that the U.S. believes Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by about two years as a result of the operation.
“What we’ve seen … universally among our allies was them congratulating the United States, the president and secretary of defense on that bold operation, and the idea that American action in Iran has set the conditions for global stability,” Parnell said. “Iran has been a major exporter of terror all around the world, and … nations the world over have been subject to their terror. I think that nations all around the world … they know that when America is strong and speaks clearly, the world is a better and more stable place.”
By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News