The Biden administration has been "risk averse" in the military aid it has agreed to provide to Ukraine, Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director and U.S. Central Command commander, said on Monday.
Biden has allocated more than $27 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded nearly a year ago, though the aid packages have changed over time to meet Kyiv's most pressing needs. The U.S. and its NATO allies have grown more willing to provide certain systems that had previously been considered too dangerous to send, though the U.S. has maintained some red lines, specifically long-range missiles that would give them the ability to strike within Russian territory.
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"I tend to think we have been a little bit overly risk averse, especially when it came to the tanks, and now I think the next decisions will be important as well. At some point, we have to give the Ukrainians a longer range precision munition for the HIMARS, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, the one that they have right now," Petraeus explained during a Monday event with the Washington Post, adding that the weapon system has demonstrated itself as "one of the game changer weapons that enabled the Ukrainians to take out Russian headquarters, fuel depots, ammo storage sites, barracks, and so forth."
"They really need a longer range system. And if we get into the question of Crimea at some point in time and trying to isolate it, that's where you'd need a longer range as well."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who reiterated his plea for long-range missiles and F16 fighter jets last week after the U.S., Germany, and other European allies agreed to provide them with tanks, urged Western countries to speed up the aid deliveries and to provide more.
"It is very important to maintain the dynamics of defense support from our partners," Zelensky said in his Sunday address. "The speed of supply has been and will be one of the key factors in this war. Russia hopes to drag out the war, to exhaust our forces. So we have to make time our weapon. We must speed up the events, speed up the supply and opening of new necessary weaponry options for Ukraine."
U.S. officials have acknowledged Zelensky's request for fighter jets, though National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said last week that he had nothing to announce about a possible aid package that included such planes.
"At some point, I think F16s probably are going to begin to be discussed," Petraeus added.
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Last week, the U.S., Germany, and others came to an agreement to provide Ukraine with tanks, though they are months removed from reaching the front lines of the war, specifically the ones the U.S. promised, which Kirby described recently as "many months" away. At issue of the dispute was Germany's unwillingness to unilaterally provide tanks to Ukraine, demanding the U.S. do the same despite U.S. defense officials repeatedly saying the maintenance and logistical requirements made them unhelpful.
The retired Army general said he was in Germany "a good three or four months back," and it was "very clear" that "the Germans were not going to move without the Americans and I think we should have recognized this sooner."