RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany: Fearing more aggression, chaos and war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin held on Thursday their final meeting, pressing the incoming Trump administration to not give up on Kyiv’s fight.
Zelensky stated they have made significant progress and it would honestly be unpragmatic to “drop the ball now” and not keep building on the defence coalitions they have created.
“No matter what’s going on in the world, everyone wants to feel sure that their country will not just be erased of the map.”
Likewise, Austin confirmed that the U.S. would provide another $500 million in security assistance to Ukraine. The assistance, he added, include missiles for fighter jets, sustainment equipment for F-16s, armoured bridging systems and small arms and ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority, meaning they can be pulled directly from the U.S. stockpiles, and the Pentagon is pushing to get them into Ukraine before the end of the month.
This latest package leaves about $3.85 billion in funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine. However, if the Biden administration makes no further announcements, that balance will be available to President-elect Donald Trump to send if he chooses.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow,” Austin told the approximately 50 member nations who have been meeting over the last three years to coordinate weapons and military support for Ukraine.
“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.”
Austin leaves a consortium that now has more than a half dozen independent coalitions of those countries, all focused on strengthening Ukraine’s long-term security capabilities and committed to continuing to stand up those needs through 2027.
Globally, countries including the U.S. have increased domestic weapons production as the Ukraine war exposed that all of those stockpiles were woefully unprepared for a large-scale conventional land war.
Since February 2022, the U.S. has contributed about $66 billion of the total aid and has been able to deliver most of it—between 80 per cent and 90 per cent—already to Ukraine.
“Retreat will only provide incentives for more imperial aggression,” Austin told the group.
“And if we flinch, you can count on Putin to push further and punch harder. Ukraine’s survival is on the line. But so is the security of Europe, the United States, and the world, he warned.”
