The Pentagon on Tuesday hosted the latest meeting of the international coalition supporting Ukraine without a new weapons aid package to announce, as the supplemental funding bill to continue security assistance efforts remains stalled in Congress.
In remarks ahead of the 18th meeting of Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. “remains determined” to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
“We’re all here to reaffirm our support for a free, secure, and sovereign Ukraine, and to ensure that we continue to get Ukraine the capabilities that it needs, for the winter and beyond,” Austin said, in his first public appearance since his hospitalization at Walter Reed Medical Center earlier this month.
Austin, who was discharged from the hospital on Jan. 15, hosted the Contact Group meeting virtually from his home and once again urged the coalition’s more than 50 countries to “dig deep to provide Ukraine with more lifesaving ground-based air-defense systems and interceptors.”
“Now, I want to take a few minutes to commend the allies and partners who have risen to the moment, and announced important new long-term security assistance packages since we last met. This includes significant announcements by Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom,” Austin said. “Taken together, these commitments will amount to billions of dollars in additional military aid for Ukraine. We must continue to focus both on Ukraine’s immediate battlefield needs, and on helping Ukraine to strengthen, modernize, and sustain its defense forces for the long haul.”
The White House and Pentagon have said the $250 million weapons aid package the U.S. approved in late December, which included additional munitions for NASAMS air defense systems and HIMARS launchers and more artillery rounds, would be the last for Ukraine without additional funding from Congress (Defense Daily, Jan. 2).
“As you heard us say as we went into the holidays here, we have no more replenishment funds and so, right now, I’m not anticipating any new [Presidential Drawdown Authority] (PDA) announcements, in terms of new capabilities, which is why we will continue working closely with Congress and urge them to pass the supplemental,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Jan. 4.
A procedural vote in the Senate to move forward on the $111 billion supplemental spending package with more Ukraine aid stalled out in early December, with the upper chamber continuing to work on border security negotiations to gain additional Republican support for the legislation (Defense Daily, Dec. 6).
The Senate’s supplemental bill includes $15.1 billion to continue DoD efforts to support Ukraine with military training and intelligence sharing, $13.5 billion in additional USAI funds and $1.7 billion in Foreign Military Finance assistance “to address Ukraine’s and other regional partners’ air defense, artillery, maritime security, and maintenance and sustainment requirements,” according to a summary of the legislation.
“Obviously, the continued lack of funding has forced us to pause drawing down additional items from our inventories, given the implications for our own military readiness. And this prevents us from meeting Ukraine’s most urgent battlefield needs, to include things like artillery rounds, anti-tank weapons [and] air defense interceptors,” Ryder said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “Also, without additional funding, it prevents us from being able to provide systems and equipment both to meet their medium and longer-term requirements and help them sustain systems that we previously provided to them.”
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told reporters in early January the Biden administration would “absolutely prioritize” air defense capabilities for Ukraine if Congress approves the pending supplemental funding package to continue security assistance efforts (Defense Daily, Jan. 5).
Ryder told reporters on Tuesday the countries of the Contact Group have collectively committed more than $80 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, adding that Tuesday’s virtual meeting helped to keep the conversation going” on international support and to ensure that “the commitments that have been made can be implemented in a methodical form and fashion.”
In his remarks ahead of the meeting, Austin noted that Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and the U.K. have taken on the lead on the Contact Group’s six “capability coalitions,” which are focused on support for Ukraine’s air force, ground-based air defenses, artillery, maritime security, de-mining, and information technology.
“I’m proud that the United States is co-leading the artillery capability coalition, along with France, and also co-leading the air-force capability coalition, alongside Denmark and the Netherlands,” Austin said.