After Ukraine aid approval, how does the Biden administration define success?
The Department of Defense announced two billion-dollar military aid packages post President Joe Biden signing the national security legislation. The aid’s impact on Ukraine’s success remains unclear, with questions about battlefield outcomes and the administration’s objectives. House Republicans criticized the lack of clarity around the aid’s purpose and the delayed support felt by Ukrainian forces.
The Department of Defense has announced two billion-dollar military aid packages, short- and long-term deliveries, in the days since President Joe Biden signed his national security supplemental legislation into law.
But it’s unclear what impact it’ll have on the battlefield or what success in Ukraine even looks like in the eyes of the Biden administration, be it total victory against Russia or simply buying enough time to push it to the negotiating table. Lack of clarity on the end game has led to criticism from the portion of House Republicans who held up the passage of Biden’s supplemental request for several months.
“There is no person in the United States House of Representatives that can tell you what objective we are meeting by injecting this money into Ukraine,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who voted against the aid package, told the Washington Examiner. “There is nobody that can tell you if we just bought Ukraine victory in six months or six years. We have no analysis from the Pentagon about what this money will do.”
The United States had largely been unable to provide Ukraine with military aid since the start of 2024, and Ukrainian forces have felt the delay on the front lines. Troops were forced to ration ammunition, resulting in low morale. Civilians, meanwhile, have been under constant bombardment given Ukraine’s limited air defenses without the U.S. support, and they had to withdraw from the city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine.
“We said from the very beginning, you heard the president say that our goal is to see a democratic, independent, and sovereign Ukraine that has a capability to defend itself and deter aggression going forward,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Friday when asked about the U.S. strategy toward Ukraine. “And so you see us working towards that end with not only the capability that we’re providing Ukraine in the current battle but the kinds of things that we’re helping Ukraine build for the future.”
“Ukraine can be successful if it has the right amount of security assistance, so we are all very grateful for Congress passing the supplemental,” he added.
The Pentagon announced a $1 billion aid package to Ukraine on Wednesday that will allow for military aid to get to Ukraine quickly, while it announced a longer-term $6 billion aid package that will go to U.S. defense contractors who will be contracted to manufacture weapons for Ukraine.
When asked if Ukraine could win the war, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. “The key part here is to make sure Ukraine can defend itself.”
He added, “And as the secretary highlighted and I have talked about here recently is that unchecked aggression leads to more aggression. So this is why it is so important for us to put Ukraine in a place to defend itself and that we don’t have this broaden to a much wider conflict.”
Austin and Brown convened the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Friday, meeting virtually with defense leaders from roughly 50 countries. The leaders meet monthly to discuss Ukraine’s most pressing battlefield needs. This meeting coincided with the second anniversary of the first meeting.
“The consequences of the delay have been felt in Ukraine,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “Over the past six months, Ukraine has had to ration ammunition, and that has resulted in the loss of some territory in the east, including the city of Avdiivka. … They are still under severe pressure on the battlefield, and it is certainly possible that Russia could make additional tactical gains in the coming weeks.”
“The fact is that it’s going to take some time for us to dig out of the hole that was created by six months of delay before Congress passed the supplemental,” he added. “We assess that Ukraine’s position in this conflict will improve, and we believe that Ukraine can and will win.”
Sullivan did not specify what winning the war would look like, nor did it articulate what exactly the aid would allow them to do.
The legislation did overwhelmingly pass and included support from key Republican leaders in the House and Senate. Many defense hawks in the GOP support Ukraine, and some argue Biden should do more to enable Ukrainian success.
The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), told the Washington Examiner, “Ukraine can absolutely win this war.”
“The U.S. and our allies must put Ukraine in as strong of a position as possible to either precipitate a Russian battlefield collapse or negotiate its terms of victory against Russia from a position of strength,” he said. “Make no mistake: Putin’s entire theory of victory is that he can outlast Western support for Ukraine. The recent passage of our national security package will put Ukraine in a better position on the battlefield against Russian forces and further show Putin that he cannot outlast us.”
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The Pentagon confirmed this week that the U.S. had provided long-range missiles known as the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to Ukraine last month. It provided more in the first aid package announced this week. The U.S. had previously denied this Ukrainian request, but Biden changed his mind in February.
Austin also warned that the security consequences of a Russian victory in Ukraine “would be grave and global.”
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