Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a farewell visit to the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday in which he repeatedly insisted that President Joe Biden would “push every dollar out the door that we have at our disposal” to Ukraine.
Blinken met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s newly minted foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, asserting that the Biden’s administration secured $8 billion in Ukraine spending in September and would continue to find way to supply Ukraine with “the air defenses it needs, that has the artillery it needs, that has the armored vehicles it needs” to fight Russia.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shortly after Biden lifted sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which would have dramatically increased Russian natural gas exports to western Europe, particularly Germany. President-elect Donald Trump sanctioned the pipeline project during his first term as a means of depriving Russian strongman of the funds necessary to conduct more belligerent activity in eastern Europe; Putin initially invaded Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and colonized it in 2014. Biden’s move to rescind the sanctions prompted shock and condemnation in Kyiv, where President Volodymyr Zelensky declared himself “very unpleasantly surprised” by the news.
Biden has supported the funding of the Ukrainian military since the full-scale invasion to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, but has done little to support negotiations with the aim of ending the conflict. Trump, in contrast, vowed to end the fighting as soon as possible to prevent the further destruction of the Ukrainian state. Zelensky enthusiastically welcomed the news last week that Trump would return to office and was among the first world leaders to congratulate him and speak to him directly following the election.
Blinken, during his appearance in Brussels, emphasized that the Biden administration would work to get as much money “out the door” to bankroll the Ukrainian war effort as possible before Inauguration Day.
“The purpose of this visit is to focus our efforts on ensuring that Ukraine has the money, the munitions, and the mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025 or to be able to negotiate a peace from a position of strength,” Blinken told reporters.
“We’ve obligated just recently and pushed out the door another $8 billion in security assistance for Ukraine – that was in September, another almost half a billion dollars just a few weeks ago,” he explained, “and President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th.”
“We’re making sure that Ukraine has the air defenses it needs, that has the artillery it needs, that has the armored vehicles it needs,” he insisted.
“The President is determined that we push every dollar out the door that we have at our disposal,” he repeated, “notably from the $61 billion supplemental that was passed on a bipartisan basis by Congress some months ago, and we’re on track to do exactly that.”
Blinken nonetheless warned that it was a time “for everyone to do more,” suggesting that the largess out of the Biden administration may soon come to an end.
In a joint press conference with Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, Blinken again stated that “everyone is focused on making sure that Ukraine has what it needs” for the war.
Sybiha raised the issue of the presidential transition, stating that part of his reason for meeting with Blinken was to ensure continued support from Washington to Kyiv.
“We maintain contact with both parties and work both with the President-elect and his team and also with the outgoing administration,” he assured.
Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced this weekend that Biden was planning to spend $6 billion appropriated to be spent for Ukraine before January, hinting that Trump’s inauguration may herald in a less generous era in Ukraine spending.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump identified the Ukraine issue as a major priority for a potential second term and vowed to end the conflict as quickly as possible. The president-elect repeatedly lamented the scale of humanitarian and cultural destruction in Ukraine.
“I want to get Russia to settle up with Ukraine and stop this — millions of people being killed, far greater than the number you read about,” Trump said during an interview in September. “But I want to get that done before I even take office, I want to get that done as president-elect, because it has to be solved — too many people dying, too many cities are just in rubble right now, you look at the cultures just being destroyed.”
Speaking to Breitbart News in August, Trump noted the severe damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage as a result of the invasion.
“You look at the heritage of the country—the cities are mostly knocked down,” Trump said, describing Ukraine. “They’re flattened. They’re just totally flattened. Have you ever seen some of these cities? There’s not a building standing. The country has been devastated. So I want to get it solved and I will be able to get it solved. And I’d like to do it before I get to the White House after I’m president-elect.”
As president, Trump caused some anxiety in Brussels by repeatedly demanding that other members of the NATO alliance pay their fair share in defense spending. In 2018, a prescient Trump condemned Germany for funding the Russia war effort through fossil fuel purchases – “What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy?” – and demanding more robust spending commitments.
“Why are there only five out of 29 countries that have met their commitment?” Trump asked at the time in a social media message. “The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025.”
In August, Trump clarified that he would resume his demands for more spending from NATO allies.
“I’ll also get you reinforcement for allies abroad, making them pull their weight,” Trump told the National Guard Association of the United States. “They have to do that, and they have to pay their fair share. As I was saying for years, all of these NATO countries spent far less than two percent of GDP on their militaries, leaving our forces overstretched.”
“To make up for shortfalls and help deter threats I’ll insist that every NATO nation must spend at least three percent,” Trump promised. “You have to go up to three percent, two percent is the steal of the century.”
