Europe asks Biden to increase aid to Ukraine before Trump takes office - Bloomberg
Photo: Europe asks Biden to help Ukraine (Getty Images)
Europe is making a last-ditch plea to the outgoing Joe Biden administration to step up US support for Ukraine to maximize Kyiv's position before the end of the presidential term in January, Bloomberg reports.
According to the agency, Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, said he would seek an early agreement between Kyiv and Moscow, which has raised concerns in Europe that such a deal would be unfavorable to Ukraine and possibly consolidate the gains made by Russia since its invasion in 2022.
European leaders and officials have asked the United States to provide Ukraine with more weapons and artillery, impose additional sanctions on Russia's key sources of revenue, and limit Moscow's ability to acquire banned technologies used in weapons, according to sources familiar with the matter. Many of the European requests have been informal.
On November 13, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a hastily organized trip to Brussels to reassure NATO and European Union allies that the US would step up its efforts to send resources to Ukraine ahead of Trump's inauguration but sharply criticized the scale of the effort.
The resources he referred to - money, ammunition, weapons - are mostly coming from the $61 billion package passed by the US Congress earlier this year. He added that "every dollar at our disposal” will be used in a hurry.
Although Biden has little time to fulfill the requests, the US is already working to adopt new sanctions against the Russian oil fleet and North Korea, which has sent troops to assist Moscow in its military operations, by the end of November, according to sources familiar with the situation who requested anonymity.
Europe has accelerated efforts to protect its interests, especially when it comes to Ukraine's military efforts before Trump becomes president. Trump has taken an antagonistic stance toward Europe and in September sidestepped the question of whether he wanted Ukraine to win.
“The next few weeks will be critical to put Ukraine in a strong position,” Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, told Bloomberg. He said the deal Trump negotiated could try to freeze the conflict on the lines where Russia currently occupies 20% of Ukrainian territory.
The United States has pledged to ensure that all the money it has available for Ukraine will be used before Trump takes office. However, the delivery of some weapons could take many months and go beyond Biden's term in office.
“We are going to do as much as we can to support Ukraine before the new team takes over,” said Douglas Bush, US Army’s Acquisition Chief. “But at that point that’ll be their judgment to make.”
Strikes deep into Russia
Several EU leaders are also pushing the US to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia. Kyiv and its allies believe that this step would greatly enhance the war-torn country's ability to defend itself against Moscow's attacks on critical infrastructure.
Biden has so far resisted this request, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has openly opposed it. People familiar with the US position said they believe it would affect the battlefield and is not worth the risk of escalation.
“When we engage with our American friends and partners, I really hope we’ll continue our support to Ukrainians, including on deep strikes, to use legitimate defense when targets are used to strike Ukraine’s defense and infrastructure,” French Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said in an interview.
Ukraine wants to use British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and French SCALPs to launch the strikes.
For its part, the EU is preparing for a disruptive Trump presidency amid fears that the bloc will have to increase aid to Ukraine due to a reduction in American support. It is seeking to speed up negotiations with the UK on a new defense and security pact.
Although the EU is Ukraine's largest aid provider, Kyiv relies on the US for critical military assets such as F-16s and long-range ATACMS missiles. According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the EU has allocated 118 billion euros since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will demand that Joe Biden allocate $20 billion to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets before Donald Trump takes office. In addition, he demands that Kyiv authorize Storm Shadow strikes on Russian territory.
