The Pentagon’s general counsel has told officials in the Department of Defense to hand over all documents or records related to Ukraine in the wake of charges that President Trump withheld military assistance to pressure Kyiv into investigating former Vice President Joseph R. Biden and his son.

On Thursday, Pentagon chief spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Defense Department offices have been instructed to “provide any pertinent documents and records to the office of general counsel for cataloging and review.”

Mr. Hoffman said the step is appropriate because of a “significant level” of interest from Congress in the matter.

The Pentagon has been pulled into the mounting controversy because it abruptly put on hold a key shipment of weaponry to Kyiv this summer for reasons that are now under sharp dispute.

In June, the Defense Department announced plans to provide $250 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including rigid hull boats, rocket propelled grenade launchers, night-vision goggles and sophisticated communications equipment.

But shortly afterward, Mr. Trump unexpectedly put a hold on the military aid package. Mr. Trump has said concerns about corruption in Ukraine, rather than partisan political considerations, were behind the temporary cash freeze, but a whistleblower account said the president was pressing Ukraine’s new president to investigate the Bidens. Mr. Biden a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and currently the front-runner.

“We’re going to be supportive of our allies and partners [but] we’re expecting our partners to do more,” Mr. Hoffman said Thursday. “We want partners and allies to be not only standing with us but to have capabilities when they’re standing with us.”

But critics say the Defense Department still has not explained why it agreed to the aid freeze after John C. Rood, the undersecretary of defense for policy, in May had sent Congress the legally mandated certification that “the government of Ukraine has taken substantial actions to make defense institutional reforms for the purposes of decreasing corruption [and] increasing accountability,” clearing the way for the defense aid package to go forward.

Mr. Hoffman said the bulk of the military assistance package has since been released to Ukraine’s government and “the rest should be out soon.”

The spokesman also said Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper was not involved in a July 25 phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, when Mr. Zelensky asked for human-portable Javelin missiles that are capable of destroying armored vehicles. The phone call was a critical part of the whistleblower’s narrative.

“To my knowledge, no one from the Department of Defense was on that call,” the spokesman told reporters. “I’ve specifically asked [Mr. Esper] that question and he was not on that call.”

The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe seconded Mr. Zelensky’s request. At a press conference Thursday, Air Force General Tod Wolters said he backed supplying additional Javelin missiles to Ukraine, which is battling a Russian-backed separatist movement in its eastern half.

Ukrainian officials said the tank-killing Javelin has been vital in the fight. Russian-backed forces in the Donbass Region have been in a state of civil war since Russia forcibly annexed the country’s Crimea region in 2014.

“Yeah, I think more of those [Javelin missiles] would probably help,” Gen. Wolters said, according to the military publication Stars and Stripes. “Right now, it is my military advice that I think we should go forward with that because of the positive outcome — because [the Ukrainians] are better able to [defend] their sovereign territory.”

The State Department on Thursday also said it now backed a sale of 150 Javelin missiles and support equipment to Ukraine for just under $40 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of the possible sale.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement.

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