As Russia's war on Ukraine heads into its third winter, U.S. military leaders said Friday they are committed to helping Ukraine remain a sovereign state.
At the 24th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where leaders from 57 countries and the European Union supporting Ukraine’s defense met Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a new $250 million security assistance package that includes additional air defense, armored vehicles, tank weapons and munitions for rocket systems and artillery.
“We’re confident that we’re building the right structure to help Ukraine succeed in the weeks, months and years ahead,” Austin said, adding that the U.S. and other Contact Group members are working to help Ukraine expand its own defense industrial base.
“Putin seeks a world of empires and autocrats — a world where might makes right, a world where bullies get to invade their peaceful neighbors with impunity — and that would be profoundly dangerous for the United States and for peace-loving people everywhere," he added.
Austin said the members of the Contact Group understand what’s at stake and won’t back down, but he added the U.S. does not support the use of long-range missiles inside Russia despite Ukraine’s launch of large-scale drone attacks inside Russian territory a month ago.
“I don’t believe one specific capability will be decisive,” Austin said. “I think Ukraine has a pretty significant capability of its own to address targets that are well beyond the range of [long-range guided missiles]. As we look at the battlefield currently, we know that the Russians have actually moved their aircraft that are using the glide bombers beyond the range of [long-range guided missiles].”
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Ramstein for the first time to ask the U.S.-led coalition for permission to launch attacks deeper into Russian territory.
“We need to have this long-range capability, not only on the divided territory of Ukraine, but also on the Russian territory, so that Russia is motivated to seek peace,” Zelenskyy told the group. “We need to make Russian cities and even Russian soldiers think about what they need: peace or Putin.”
Austin said he thinks “eventually this conflict will be resolved at the negotiation table, but when that point comes is hard to predict.”
He said the war could end if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to pull his forces out of Ukraine.
“This was started by Putin,” Austin said. “Putin could end it very quickly if he just made the simple and right decision to undo what he’s done.”
Since February 2022, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, more than 35,000 civilians have been killed, along with at least 500,000 soldiers on both sides. In the last two days, Russian attacks on the Ukrainian cities of Poltava and Lviv have killed 57 people.
“I share President Zelenskyy’s outrage over Putin’s most recent barrage of airstrikes, which have been some of the heaviest since Moscow’s full-scale invasion,” Austin said. “Ukrainian forces still face perilous battlefield conditions, especially in Pokrovsk, but Ukraine’s troops continue to fight with skill, courage and daring.”
He praised Ukraine for holding its own against the largest military in Europe. Ukraine has received more than $106 billion in security assistance from 57 countries, including air defense, armor, artillery ammunition and, most recently, F-16 fighter jets.
The United States has so far provided $58 billion in military assistance to Ukraine to defend itself.
