KYIV, Ukraine
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd
Austin made an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday in a high-profile push to
keep money and weapons flowing to Ukraine even as U.S. and international
resources are stretched by the new global risks raised by the Israel-Hamas conflict.U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is welcomed as he arrives in Kyiv, Ukraine, Nov. 20, 2023.
Austin, who traveled to Kyiv
by train from Poland, is scheduled to meet with senior Ukrainian officials and
publicly press Ukraine’s urgent military needs as it enters another tough
winter of fighting.
This is Austin’s second trip
to Kyiv, but he’s making it under far different circumstances. His first visit occurred in April 2022, just two months
after Russia’s large-scale invasion. At the time, Ukraine was riding a wave of
global rage at Moscow’s invasion, and Austin launched an international effort
that now sees 50 countries meet monthly to coordinate on what weapons, training
and other support could be pushed to Kyiv.
“I’m here today to deliver an
important message — the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine in
their fight for freedom against Russia’s aggression, both now and into the
future,” Austin posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
But the conflict in Gaza
could pull attention and resources from the Ukraine fight.
The U.S. has worked feverishly since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel, and
the weeks of devastating bombardment on Gaza by Israel that has followed,
killing more than 10,000 civilians, to keep those attacks from turning into a
regional war.
The
U.S. has already committed two carrier strike groups, scores of fighter jets
and thousands of U.S. personnel to the Middle East, and has had to shift its
force posture and conduct airstrikes against Iranian- backed militant groups
who are now hitting U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria on a regular basis.
To date, Ukraine has received
more $44 billion from the U.S. and more than $35 billion from other allies in
weapons, ranging from millions of bullets to air defense systems, advanced
European and U.S. battle tanks and, finally, pledges for F-16 fighter jets.
But Ukraine still needs more,
and after almost 20 months of shipping arms to Ukraine, cracks are beginning to
show. Some European countries such as Poland have scaled back support, noting their need to maintain
adequate fighting ability to defend themselves.
Ukrainian officials have
strongly pushed back on suggestions it’s in a stalemate with Russia after a
long-awaited counteroffensive over the summer did not radically change the
battle lines on the ground. In a visit to Washington last week, Andriy Yermak,
head of the president’s office, provided no details but confirmed that
Ukrainian forces had finally pushed through to the east bank of the Dnieper
River, which has essentially served as the immovable front line between
Ukrainian and Russian forces for months.
However, as winter sets in it
will become more difficult for either side to make large gains due to ground
conditions. That could further work against Ukraine if U.S. lawmakers perceive
there’s time to wait before more funds are needed.
Fred Kagan, a senior resident
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that would be a mistake.
“If we stop providing aid to
Ukraine, it’s not that the stalemate continues. The aid is actually essential
to preventing the Russians from beginning to maneuver again in ways that can
allow them to defeat Ukraine,” Kagan said. “So the cost of cutting off aid is
that Russia wins and Ukraine loses and NATO loses.”
Further complicating the
support is that the Pentagon has only a dwindling amount of money left in this
year’s budget to keep sending weapons to Ukraine, and Congress is months late
on getting a new budget passed and has not taken up a supplemental spending
package that would include Ukraine aid.
Since the war began in
February 2022, the U.S. has provided more than $44.2 billion in weapons to
Ukraine, but the funding is nearly gone. The Pentagon can send about $5 billion
more in weapons and equipment from its own stocks. But it only has about $1 billion
in funding to replace those stocks. As a result, recent announcements of
weapons support have been of much smaller dollar amounts than in months past.
“You have seen smaller
packages, because we need to parse these out,” Pentagon deputy press secretary
Sabrina Singh said Thursday. “Because we don’t know when Congress is going to
pass our supplemental package.”
Officials have been urging
Congress to provide additional money, but a growing number of Senate
Republicans have opposed additional Ukraine aid without securing support for
other unrelated provisions, such as stricter immigration laws and additional
funding for border control. A stopgap spending bill passed last week to avoid a
government shutdown during the holidays did not include any money for Ukraine.
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