After G-7 leaders affirmed long-term support for Ukraine in a recent joint declaration, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday he expects there will be more international partners establishing bilateral agreements to ensure Kyiv has “the capability to defend themselves in the future and to deter aggression in the future.”
“We can expect that countries will execute bilateral agreements with Ukraine going forward. And, certainly, we will as well. And that’s a work in progress,” Austin said during a press briefing following the 14th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted virtually from the Pentagon.
The G-7’s Joint Declaration of Support for Ukraine, detailed at NATO’s summit in Vilnius, Lithuania last week, says that negotiations with Ukraine are underway to establish “bilateral security commitments and arrangements” that will “formalize” long-term support for the country’s defense, rebuilding and “integration into the Euro-Atlantic community” (Defense Daily, July 12).
Austin noted Sweden and France, specifically, have both signed bilateral agreements with Ukraine for “defense procurements and more.”
“That’s going to help Ukraine get even more advanced systems and it will foster deeper cooperation going forward. And both of these agreements demonstrate our long-term focus on building up Ukraine’s enduring strength,” Austin said.
During Thursday’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, Austin said the more than 50 participating countries reaffirmed their commitment to providing security assistance in support of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive and to support long-term defense requirements.
“Ukraine is continuing its critical counteroffensive to regain its sovereign territory. We’re seeing Ukraine make progress and Russia’s losses continue to mount,” Austin said. “As we saw again today, this contact group stands united behind them. Today, we recommitted to supporting Ukraine during its crucial counteroffensive and for the long haul. And this is no time to slow down.”
In remarks ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Austin noted Norway recently committed to sending additional components for the Kongsberg and RTX-built NASAMS air defense systems in Ukraine while Australia has detailed plans to provide Kyiv with 70 more military vehicles and artillery ammunition.
Austin added that Germany’s new $770 million security aid package for Ukraine includes Patriot launchers, 24 Leopard tanks, 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles and 20,000 artillery rounds and that France recently announced it will transfer SCALP long-range missiles to Kyiv as well.
Austin said the U.S. will “continue to generate combat power” for Ukraine, to include plans to “push in additional Bradley fighting vehicles and also Strykers and artillery pieces.”
“I would remind you, this is not over. We continue to generate combat power. We’re training and equipping three [Ukrainian] brigades in Germany right now and there’s other training ongoing around the region, as the chairman pointed out earlier,” Austin said. “Our work continues and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that Ukrainians can be successful.”
Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, addressed the status of Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive, acknowledging it has slowed down from what was predicted while adding it’s “far from a failure.”
“What the Ukrainians have, though, is a significant amount of combat power not yet committed. And I will not say what’s going to happen in the future because that’s going to be a Ukrainian decision as to when and where they commit their reserves, etc. Right now, they’re preserving their combat power and they have been slowly, deliberately and steadily working their way through all these minefields. And it’s a tough fight. It’s a very difficult fight,” Milley said. “I’m confident they can do this and especially if they execute the tactics, techniques and procedures that they’ve been taught, which they are doing, and execute these operations at night, which would deny the Russians the ability to use any of their airpower anyway.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. announced a new $800 million weapons aid package for Ukraine which includes providing cluster munitions, specifically dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, for the first time (Defense Daily, July 7).
“With this announcement, we will be able to provide Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of additional artillery ammunition immediately. This decision will ensure we can sustain our support for Ukraine by bridging us to a point where we are producing sufficient artillery ammunition on a monthly basis across the coalition,” Colin Kahl, the outgoing under secretary of defense for policy, said at a press briefing at the time.
Austin noted Ukraine’s “urgent need for ammunition” was discussed at today’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting.
“We also discussed plans to ramp up production at both the national level and the multinational level through the European Union’s initiative to produce more ammunition,” Austin said.