President Joe Biden is hoping to parlay his surprise trip to Kyiv into tangible new support for Ukraine as he travels to neighboring Poland, where he’s expected to meet with Eastern European leaders.
(Bloomberg) — President Joe Biden is hoping to parlay his surprise trip to Kyiv into tangible new support for Ukraine as he travels to neighboring Poland, where he’s expected to meet with Eastern European leaders.
The question for Biden is whether his dramatic visit to Ukraine can rally both international allies and lawmakers within the US to provide the additional assistance Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says is badly needed, amid concerns fatigue is growing as the war nears its one-year mark.
Ukrainian leaders are bracing for a resumption of fighting as the weather begins to warm. In addition to arms and ammunition, the US may push allies to adopt even more sanctions against Moscow and its allies — even as they are sounding the alarm that China is considering stepping up assistance to Russia.
Read more: Biden Meets Zelenskiy on Surprise Kyiv Trip Nearly Year Into War
What Biden is delivering: Biden’s trip into Ukraine — his first since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022 — was intended to boost Zelenskiy, who is begging allies to remain united and provide more deliverables, including fighter jets.
“I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about US support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said in Kyiv.
After Biden’s visit to the capital, the US officially announced $460 million in new military aid, which includes additional Javelin rockets, Bradley vehicles, and air surveillance radar systems. The assistance package includes artillery and mortar rounds, as well as ammunition for mobile rocket systems and around 2,000 anti-armor rockets. The US will also send tactical vehicles, Claymore mines, night vision devices and secure communications systems, the Pentagon said.
Biden also said the US was planning later this week to announce “additional sanctions against elites and companies that are trying to evade or backfill Russia’s war machine.”
Why it matters: Zelenskiy is asking for faster delivery of military aid and equipment as Ukrainian officials and its military face stepped-up attacks by Russia in the east. The US has committed $30 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Biden took office.
“Can’t blame President Zelenskiy for wanting more, heavier, faster,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday. “We also understand the clock. And we know that time is critical here.”
Biden’s trip comes as some Republicans threaten to cut funding for Ukraine, though White House officials are confident the existing money appropriated will last through the fiscal year.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell downplayed that narrative. “Reports about the death of Republican support for strong American leadership in the world have been greatly exaggerated,” he said at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
What the US has given so far: The Biden administration has provided by far the largest chunk of military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv. Last month, Biden said the US would provide Ukrainian forces with Abrams M1 tanks, helping unlock a supply of German-made Leopard tanks that are set to arrive sooner.
It’ll be “many months” before the US’s Abrams tanks will be procured, built and ready to get into Ukrainian hands, Kirby said Friday.
Zelenskiy and his team are now asking allies to commit to sending fighter jets, a demand that Biden has so far ruled out. US officials, however, say that Ukraine’s needs have evolved with the conflict and can’t predict what that means for the provision of fighter jets going forward.
Poland’s role: With a long history of antagonism with its bigger European neighbors stretching back to multiple partitions and the trauma of World War II, Warsaw has often looked to its transatlantic alliance as a source of backing.
The US has prized Poland’s role within NATO as a vocal supporter of weapons deliveries to Ukraine, often in contrast with Germany, which had to be pressured into sending tanks.
Russia’s invasion has turned the provincial city of Rzeszow and its airport, 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Ukrainian border, into international gateways to the war.
Poland’s government says it’s more than doubling annual defense spending this year to 4% of gross domestic product, including a significant share for US weaponry. Just this month, the US said it plans to sell Poland about $10 billion in weapons, including 18 Himars precision rocket launchers and ammunition.
Who is Biden meeting in Warsaw? Biden plans to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda and leaders of the so-called Bucharest Nine group of eastern-flank NATO allies during his Feb. 21-22 visit. The meeting — and a speech planned for Tuesday evening — will be a chance to describe “how the United States will continue to rally the world to support the people of Ukraine and the core values of human rights and dignity,” Biden said.
Biden last visited Warsaw in late March, a month after the invasion, and denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech at the capital’s former royal castle.
–With assistance from Patrick Donahue and Justin Sink.
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