The Administration of Joe Biden in the United States considers that “today the survival of Ukraine is in danger” in the face of Russian aggression and promises to maintain its military support, despite the months-long blockade in Congress of a millionaire reinforcement package for in the Ukrainian army. “They will not allow Ukraine to fail”, assured yesterday the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, at the end of a new meeting of allied countries on military aid to Kyiv, held at the American air base in Ramstein (Germany) .
Before defense ministers and chiefs of staff from nearly 50 countries, Austin admitted that Russia is making “a series of incremental gains at a significant cost in personnel and equipment,” and that the Ukrainian military urgently needs more air defense, weaponry and ammunition
Meanwhile, the approval of a US military aid package of about 60 billion dollars (about 55.3 billion euros) has been held up for months in the House of Representatives by the veto of some Republican lawmakers, including – there is the Speaker of the Lower House, Mike Johnson.
“Our allies and partners continue to take steps; the United States must also act,” said the head of the Pentagon about the consignments of material collected by several European nations, in a message that sounded like it was directed at the Republican Party in his country. “Today, the survival of Ukraine is at stake and the security of the United States is at risk; they don’t have a day to lose and we don’t have a day to lose either”, he said, solemnly.
Former president Donald Trump, who aspires to defeat the Democrat Biden in the presidential elections in November, has made it clear that he does not plan to finance Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invader.
All this happens when the Ukrainian army suffers from a shortage of weapons on the battlefield, and the fear of defeat among the allies increases, after several advances by Russian forces. Lloyd Austin insisted that Vladimir Putin’s successes come at a high cost: “At least 315,000 Russian soldiers have died or been wounded” since the beginning of the invasion – a figure already mentioned at the end of last year -, and Moscow “has squandered up to $211 billion [€194.2 billion] to equip, deploy, maintain and support its imperial aggression against Ukraine.” Despite this, the military strength of the aggressor remains. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia is preparing a new offensive sometime between the end of May and the summer.
In this context, the White House scratched a $300 million (274 million euro) endowment obtained thanks to savings obtained in recent purchases by the Pentagon, which was announced last week, but warns that there will only be enough for a few weeks of combat.
Lloyd Austin assured that there is “broad support” in both houses of the US Congress for actions in favor of Ukraine, so he expects the pending amount of $60 billion to be approved soon: “But we cannot predict it completely; “We will continue to work with Congress and our international partners to ensure that Ukraine receives the support it needs,” he concluded.
“We are determined to provide Ukraine with all the resources it needs to resist Russian aggression,” insisted the Secretary of Defense. Washington has been by far the largest donor of military aid to Kyiv, with tens of billions, but European support is increasingly increased as Biden fails to get the House of Representatives to approve billions in pending aid , and most of his foreign policy energy is now focused on the war in Gaza.
EU countries have devoted around €28 billion to arming Ukraine since the full-scale invasion launched by Vladimir Putin’s Russia on February 24, 2022. But Europe alone cannot make up for the lack of support additional United States. Germany, the most important European taxpayer, also announced yesterday a new allocation of 500 million euros, which includes ten thousand rounds of ammunition from the arsenal of its armed forces. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, present at Ramstein, told the press that the United States remains a reliable partner. “I have no doubts about the reliability of the Americans; there are particularities in political systems and we must address them”, he said.
Last Friday in Berlin, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, announced the creation of a coalition of allies to send Ukraine long-range artillery within the club of Ramstein countries. But this matter was not even mentioned in the two appearances of Lloyd Austin yesterday, neither at the beginning nor at the end of the work.
As usual in the Ramstein format, the meeting was also attended by the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, Rustem Umérov. For Spain there was Admiral Juan FranciscoMartínez, Secretary General of Defense Policy. These regular meetings of the so-called Contact Group began two months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and this is the twentieth. They are not always celebrated in the American base of Ramstein; some have taken place in Brussels.
“The United States supports Ukraine because it is the right thing to do and because America cares about freedom when it is threatened, but we also support Ukraine because it is crucial to our own security,” insisted Lloyd Austin, in a speech which again seemed aimed more at the American audience than the Allied countries.
