The Biden administration is working to surge deliveries of weapons to Ukraine in its final days in office in a concerted effort to put Kyiv on a strong footing going into 2025, according to a senior administration official.
The push is in stark contrast to that of the incoming Trump administration, with President-elect Donald Trump sharply criticizing a recent US move to allow Ukraine to use US-provided weapons to strike inside Russia in an interview with Time Magazine published Thursday.
In the latest show of support for Ukraine, the Biden administration on Thursday evening announced a $500 million aid package that will pull equipment out of the US military’s stocks.
The senior administration official told CNN that the administration is pouring resources into getting previously announced weapons for Ukraine into Kyiv’s hands before Biden leaves office.
“DoD is undertaking a historic effort to move massive quantities of weapons into Ukraine in the next five weeks,” the senior administration official said. “Between now and mid-January, we will deliver to Ukraine hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, hundreds of armored vehicles, and other critical capabilities.”
An interagency effort to deliver the weapons is being led by national security adviser Jake Sullivan, the senior official said. In November, Sullivan told Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on behalf of the president to “accelerate” the deliveries of armored vehicles, rockets, artillery and more to Ukraine. The Pentagon is now conducting sealifts and airlifts to meet the delivery deadline.
Sullivan just briefed Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, about the sealifts and airlifts last week, a source familiar with the matter said. David Shimer, the National Security Council’s Ukraine director, has been coordinating with the Pentagon on their efforts specifically.
The renewed push for delivery to Ukraine hasn’t changed the situation that there are no US boots on the ground in Ukraine, the source familiar said, and the weapons are being moved through Europe the way they have been throughout the war. But the source said that the surge in deliveries is involving a significant number of flights and sea vessels.
Meanwhile, in the interview with Time — which was conducted in late November but published Thursday with Trump’s selection as the 2024 Person of the Year — Trump was pushed on how he will support Ukraine after taking office. He said in the interview that he “vehemently” disagreed with the decision by the Biden administration to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia with US-provided weapons.
“We’re just escalating this war and making it worse,” Trump said. “That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake.”
Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick to be the next national security adviser, has been weighing proposals for ending the war, including one from retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg — whom Trump announced as his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia — that would make continued US aid to Ukraine contingent on Ukraine’s participation in peace talks with Russia. Another proposal would allow Russia to keep the territory it currently holds in exchange for giving Ukraine NATO membership.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he wants to work “directly” with Trump and that he believes the war will end “faster”when he is president. Trump and Zelensky met just last week in Paris, along with French President Emmanuel Macron.
CNN has reported that the Pentagon is unlikely to use all of the nearly $7 billion left in funding that was authorized by Congress to arm Ukraine by the time Biden leaves office, largely due to limitations in the military’s ability to refill its own stocks. The source familiar, though, said the administration is confident that they’ll use the appropriated funding for Ukraine, drawing a distinction from what was authorized.
But still, the biggest challenge facing Ukraine is not its weapons stocks, the senior administration official said — it’s manpower. The source familiar with the matter said that the Biden administration’s emphasis on Kyiv’s need to address its manning issue is part of the larger push to ensure Ukraine is in as good a position as possible going into 2025.
“Ukraine is not currently mobilizing or training enough soldiers to staff its front-line units,” the official said. “The US stands ready to help train newly mobilized soldiers: If Ukraine mobilizes additional soldiers and sends them to training sites outside of Ukraine, we will train them. But first, Ukraine needs to make the decision to mobilize more soldiers.”
