On June 10, I woke up at 2 a.m. to the sound of a Russian-Iranian suicide drone exploding just outside my hotel’s window in Kyiv as it was intercepted by an air defense missile. Before heading down to the bomb shelter, I heard three more.

A week later, more than 280 drones and several ballistic missiles targeted Ukraine’s capital, killing at least 28 people. Among them was American citizen Fred Grandy.

Without air-defense missiles, the death toll would have been much worse, so it’s shocking that the Pentagon has said it is halting shipments of those arms to Ukraine.

Driven by the Department of Defense’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, a longtime opponent of aid to Ukraine, this disastrous decision is tantamount to sabotage of President Trump’s efforts to end Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Colby has spent years arguing that aid should be diverted from Ukraine to defend allies like Taiwan, even though the Taiwanese themselves have said the best way to help them is to make sure Russia loses in Ukraine.

Emboldened by Colby’s cut of U.S. assistance, Putin just launched the single largest air attack of the war on Sunday, sending 537 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and suicide drones to kill civilians and force Ukraine to burn through its dwindling supply of air defenses.

President Trump has spent more than four months hoping to secure a negotiated settlement to Putin’s invasion, finding Kyiv willing to make serious concessions in the name of peace despite Moscow’s continued demands for Ukrainians to surrender.

So far, Trump’s strategy of easing pressure on Russia in hopes that it will entice Putin into a ceasefire hasn’t worked — indeed, it has made things worse.

As I saw firsthand while in Ukraine earlier this month, Russia is taking advantage of Washington’s wavering support to gain an edge on the battlefield.

While sitting underground last month, listening to the rattle of air defenses overhead, it was impossible not to think of the fact that just a day earlier, the White House diverted 20,000 air defense missiles specially designed for Ukraine to defend against these drones to the Middle East.

Ukraine is working to develop its own anti-drone air defenses and secure additional aid from Europe.

But without new support from Trump, Ukraine’s cities could soon be left defenseless to missile barrages. Only the United States can provide Patriots. Some of the most sophisticated air defenses in the world, these systems are Ukraine’s only real shield against the Russian and Iranian-supplied ballistic missiles.

There’s a reason Russia is stepping up its massive aerial bombardments — if Ukraine burns through its remaining Patriot interceptors, it will be at risk of open season for the Kremlin to rain fire down on Ukrainian cities.

It’s a big reason why Ukraine is hoping to secure a multibillion-dollar sale of air defenses from the United States, with the financing potentially coming from European countries or even from the billions of dollars in frozen Russian assets sitting in the United States.

While speaking at the NATO Summit last week, Trump said he was optimistic about making a deal on air defense. It can’t come soon enough.

Helping Ukraine helps America.

Thanks in part to lessons learned from Ukraine’s use of Patriots, U.S. air defenses had a 100% success rate intercepting Iran’s missiles and drones when Tehran attacked a U.S. base in Qatar last month.

President Trump is right to push for an end to the fighting in Ukraine — nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians — but it’s long past time for him to accept that Putin is indeed “tapping” him along.

Unless President Trump reverses their decision, the Pentagon’s cut of military aid to Ukraine will likely doom his peace efforts.

Just recently, Putin again declared that all of Ukraine belongs to Russia and that “wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is Russian land.”

When Putin tells President Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff that he wants peace, he’s lying. Just like Iran, which Trump calls the bully of the Middle East, Russia will not stop until it is stopped.

Congress is itching to act. Senator Lindsey Graham says Trump has given him the green light to advance sanctions legislation, which has garnered support from over 85% of the Senate and would undoubtedly pass, giving Trump the authority to impose major sanctions on Russia and enablers of its war, such as China.

Sanctions remain one of the single best tools in Trump’s arsenal to show Putin he won’t stand aside and allow Moscow to conquer Ukraine. Levying them would likely earn the president overwhelming bipartisan approval and be his strongest push yet for peace in Ukraine.

But unless sanctions are paired with air defenses and other arms needed for Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s merciless attacks, President Trump will be turning his back on the Ukrainian people.

Back in Kyiv, just before another air alert went off on our phones and echoed through sirens across the city, my Ukrainian colleague remarked that since Patriots first arrived in Ukraine in 2023, the sound of an American air defense battery launching interceptors into the sky to defend Kyiv has become instantly recognizable to her.

She said that despite Putin’s escalating air raids, “nowadays, I’m hearing it less and less.”

For President Trump to have a real chance at securing peace in Ukraine, that must change.

Doug Klain is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a policy analyst at Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit humanitarian aid and advocacy organization.