The News
US President Joe Biden announced a ”surge" in military assistance to Ukraine on Thursday ahead of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The package includes nearly $2.4 billion in air defenses, but stops short of allowing Kyiv to use US-made missiles to strike deeper into Russia, a key part of Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” — details of which have been kept secret but which he is expected to outline during his meeting with Biden.
Biden also said he would convene a high-level meeting involving 50 of Ukraine’s allies in Germany next month.
“Through these actions, my message is clear: The United States will provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war,” Biden said in a statement.
SIGNALS
Ukraine has ‘window of opportunity’ for a parting gift from Biden
Zelenskyy’s “victory plan” is expected to include loosening restrictions on long-range strikes into Russia, bolstering Kyiv’s arsenal of weapons, and an invitation to NATO. “I think there is a window of opportunity” for more ambitious requests from Ukraine in Biden’s last months in office, Kurt Volker, former US ambassador to NATO, told Semafor, although he noted that the administration has been “very stubborn” on some of these issues so far. A European official told Semafor that Zelenskyy is seeking to gain real security guarantees before Donald Trump potentially returns to power. But despite Ukraine’s hope for a NATO invitation before Biden leaves office, the official said “I do not think Biden will move on this.”
Trump ramps up criticism of Ukraine
Zelenskyy’s visit comes as the growing spat between him and Trump threatens to complicate efforts to convince the former president to support Ukraine should he return to the White House. “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal,” Trump said at a campaign rally on Wednesday in what CNN described as the Republican candidate’s “most explicit criticism” of Zelenskyy’s war-time decisions so far. The Ukrainian president also faces a Republican firestorm after visiting a munitions plant in Scranton alongside Democrats, a move that has already sparked congressional calls for Ukraine’s ambassador to be fired. Although Ukrainian officials previously said the two politicians were planning to meet this week, the Trump campaign said that no meeting has been planned.
Dwindling Western stockpiles limit Ukraine aid
US officials are increasingly concerned that dwindling stockpiles will limit military aid to Ukraine, CNN reported, portioning out smaller tranches of funding to avoid impacting the Pentagon’s military readiness. While the US has ramped up defense production, it will take years for new facilities to come fully online to refill US inventories. In the UK, military stockpiles have become so depleted that military aid to Ukraine was “sharply reduced” last year to prevent “unacceptable risks to the UK’s military readiness,” a recent report said. While NATO countries have been scrambling to boost their production of key artillery shells, Western officials have struggled to source the parts and supplies needed to supply Ukraine with enough ammunition, a Reuters investigation found.