Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin used their final meeting Thursday to press the incoming Trump administration not to give up on Kyiv’s fight, warning that to cease military support now “will only invite more aggression, chaos and war”.
“We’ve come such a long way that it would honestly be crazy to drop the ball now and not keep building on the defense coalitions we’ve created,” Zelenskyy said. “No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased off the map.”
Austin doubled down on that, saying that “no responsible leader” will let Russian President Vladimir Putin “have his way.” And while Austin acknowledged he has no idea what President-elect Donald Trump will do, he said the international leaders gathered Thursday at Ramstein Air Base talked about the need to continue the mission.
The leaders were attending a gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations that Austin brought together months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to coordinate weapons support.
“I’m leaving this contact group not with a farewell but with a challenge. The coalition to support Ukraine must not flinch. It must not falter. And it must not fail,” Austin said during his final press conference. “Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is all of our security.” The Biden administration has worked to provide Ukraine with as much military support as it can, including approving a a new $500 million tranche of weapons and relaxing restrictions on missile strikes into Russia.
But Trump’s pronouncements about pushing for a quick end to the war and his kinship with Putin trigger concern among allies. Some used the meeting to muse about what to do if the US begins to back away from its support for Kyiv or if the contact group will continue as is or assume a new shape under one of its major European contributors, such as Germany.
If the US does not come back to the table to assist Ukraine, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said his country and several other European nations are discussing options.
Austin said the continuation of the group is essential, calling it “the arsenal of Ukrainian democracy” and “the most consequential global coalition in more than 30 years.” Pistorius said he intends to travel to the US shortly after the Jan 20 inauguration to meet his new counterpart to discuss the issue.
“It’s clear a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now,” said Zelenskyy. “A time when we will have to cooperate even more, rely even more on one another even more and achieve even greater results together.” Ukraine is in the midst of launching a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and is facing a barrage of long-range missiles and ongoing advances from Russia as both sides seek to put themselves in the strongest negotiating point possible before trump takes office.
Zelenskyy called the Kursk offensive “one of our biggest wins,” which has cost Russia and North Korea, which sent soldiers to help Russia in Kursk, thousands of troops. Zelenskyy said the offensive resulted in North Korea suffering 4,000 casualties, but US estimates put the number lower at about 1,200.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine will continue to need air defence systems and munitions to defend against Russia’s missile attacks.
The latest aid package includes missiles for air defence and for fighter jets, sustainment equipment for F-16s, armored bridging systems and small arms and ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from US stockpiles, and the Pentagon is pushing to get them into Ukraine before the end of the month. Unless there is another aid package approved, the Biden administration will leave about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorised funding for any future arms shipments to Ukraine. It will be up to Trump to decide whether or not to spend it.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow,” Austin told the contact group leaders. “If autocrats conclude that democracies will lose their nerve, surrender their interests, and forget their principles, we will only see more land grabs. If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.”
In the months since Trump’s election victory, Europe has grappled with what that change will mean in terms of their fight to keep Russia from further advancing, and whether the post-World War II Western alliance will hold.
In recent days, Trump has threatened to take Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — a NATO member — by military means if necessary. Such action would upend all norms of the historic NATO alliance and possibly require members to come to the defence of Denmark due to US aggression.
Austin declined to comment on Trump’s threat, saying, “I won’t speculate on whether he’s serious or not.” But Pistorius called Trump’s comments “diplomatically astonishing.” “Alliances are alliances, to stay alliances.
Regardless of who is governing countries,” Pistorius said. “I’m quite optimistic that remarks like that won’t really influence US politics after the 20th of January.” Globally, countries including the US have ramped up domestic weapons production as the Ukraine war exposed that all of those stockpiles were woefully unprepared for a major conventional land war.
The US has provided about $66 billion of the total aid since February 2022 and has been able to deliver most of that total — between 80% and 90% — already to Ukraine.
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