Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday used his final appearance at the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Ramstein, Germany, to announce a $500 million security assistance package for Kyiv — including missiles, air-to-ground munitions, support equipment for F-16 fighter jets, armored bridging systems and small arms ammunition.
The weapons are funded through presidential drawdown authority so they will be drawn from U.S. stockpiles. The Department of Defense wants to get them to Ukraine by the end of the month.
“Here again in Ramstein, I am determined to do all I can to help Ukraine live in freedom and security and to forge a more just and decent world. Together, our work must continue,” Mr. Austin said as Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy looked on.
The Pentagon chief said the war begun nearly three years ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin is nothing less than a “challenge to free people everywhere.”
“We all have a stake in ensuring that autocrats cannot place their imperial ambitions ahead of the bedrock rights of free and sovereign people,” Mr. Austin said. “Ukraine is waging a just war of self-defense and it is one of the great causes of our time.”
Since the start of the war in February 2022, the coalition has committed to Ukraine more than $122 billion worth of military assistance — including about $66 billion from the US.
“We must remember that the promises from the last NATO summit have not been fully fulfilled. We need the air defense systems that you provided us — thank you very much — and we really need the systems that you have promised us,” Mr. Zelenskyy told the UDCG members at Thursday’s meeting.
Even as he thanked Mr. Austin for his steadfast support to Ukraine over the years, Mr. Zelenskyy looked ahead to President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
“It’s clear that a new chapter starts for Europe and the entire world just 11 days from now. We have to cooperate even more, rely on one another even more, and achieve even greater results together,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “I see this as a time of opportunities. We’ve shown that when we come and belong together, no one is too small to make a real impact on history.”
Mr. Trump has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine and negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow. He has insisted that Mr. Putin wouldn’t have launched the invasion had he been the president at the time.
Even after three years of fighting, the stakes are still enormous for Ukraine and the rest of the free world, Mr. Austin said.
“If Putin swallows Ukraine, his appetite will only grow. If autocrats concluded that democracies will lose their nerve, surrender their interests, and forget their principles, we will only see more land grabs,” the defense secretary said. “If tyrants learn that aggression pays, we will only invite even more aggression, chaos, and war.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.